BAGUIO CITY— Cordilleran fighter Divine Wally settled for a bronze medal and helped the Philippine Wushu Team to a two silver, two bronze haul at the 15th World Wushu Championships (WWC) in Shanghai, China from October 19 to 24.
Wally fell to eventual winner Nguyen Thi Chinh in the semifinals of the 48-kilogram division of wushu sanda (contact category) to settle for a bronze in a tie with Turkey’s Hayriye Turksoy who lost to Egypt’s Yasmin Salim in the other semifinals on Wednesday.
Salim went on to lose to Nguyen in the final round.
In what could be a preview of the Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) finals in December, Wally was outstretched by the Vietnamese.
“Hindi ko po alam kung siya ang ipapadala sa Seagames (I don’t know if she will be the one to play in the SEA Games),” Wally told Philippine News Agency (PNA) through Facebook messenger on Friday.
“Things didn’t work out the way I wanted, feels uncomfortable. Father help me handle it,” Wally wrote on her FB wall after losing in the semis last on October 23.
Two male sanda players lost in the finals to settle for silver.
Russel Diaz lost in the finals of the 48-kilogram (kg.) division to India’s Praveen Kumar while Arnel Mandal bowed to Mahmoud Atef of Egypt in the 52-kg. division.
Clemente Tabugara provided the country’s fourth medal when he lost in the semifinals of the 65-kg. division won by Iran’s Efren Ahangarian as Team Philippines finished 15th in the 37-nation competition won by China which had a 14-1-1 gold- silver- bronze haul.
Iran wound up second with a 9-2-1 production followed by Hong Kong (5-4-1).
Indonesia is the best placed Southeast Asian nation with 3-0-1 that is good for fourth while Malaysia came in with a 2-5-1 haul that is good for sixth, while Vietnam wound up ninth with a 1-4-4 tally.
Another Cordilleran, Gideon Padua failed in his debut to make podium.
The team is set to return to Chengdu, Sichuan, China to continue their training for the SEA Games and fly home mid-November for the games scheduled late November and early December in various venues in Manila, Clark in Angeles, Pampanga and Bulacan, among others.
