Wally, Mandal snare World wushu golds

MANILA, Philippines – Rookies Divine Wally of Baguio City and Arnel Mandal of Iloilo City hurdled their respective opponents to claim the gold medals in the biennial 13th World Wushu Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The 19-year-old Wally, a silver medalist in the seventh Asian Junior Championships and the SEA Games, outclassed Vietnamese Luan Thi Hoang to rule the 48kg division and become the first Filipina gold medal winner in the event.

Mandal, 20, pulled the rug from under Indian Uchit Sharma to capture the gold in the 52kg category.

Agatha Khrystenzen Wong of Quezon City delivered the first medal – silver – for Team Philippines, backed by the Philippine Sports Commission, in the compulsory taijiquan. Wong also won the gold in the 42 forms taijiquan and settled for the bronze in the 42 forms taijijian in the eighth Asian Juniors Wushu Championship last year.

Last year’s Asian Games bronze medalist and 2015 SEA Games silver medalist Francisco Solis of Iloilo City also took the bronze in the 65kg class after losing to reigning Asian Games champion Hong Xing Kong of China.

“I never expected that our team rebuilding tack could pay dividends so soon. All our medalists in the previous staging of the world championship were not in the team this time as either they have retired or saddled with injury,” said Team Philippines delegation head Julian Camacho, also the Wushu Federation Philippines sec-gen and Philippine Olympic Committee treasurer.

The Phl wound up tied for eighth overall with Macau with China topping the medal table with 14 gold medals followed by Indonesia with seven and Iran with six.

The event drew 76 countries and 904 athletes.