By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Wushu artist Agatha Wong provided the early good news for Team Philippines Friday, May 12, when she reigned in the women’s taijiquan +taijijian event in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games at the Chroy Changvar Convention Center here.
Knowing she needed to put up a show after finishing third in the taijiquan with 9.580 Wednesday, May 10, Wong did just the right thing, raising the level of her performance a notch higher to completely turn the tide on her favor.
With her grace, speed and timing, Wong produced 9.683 to finish with the highest total of 19.623, a feat that calmed down the nerves of PH officials waiting for the first gold of the day.
It was not easy despite being the favorite.
At first the 24-year-old Wong was nervous at winning after organizers decided to combine the scores of taijiquan and taijijian for the gold medal.
But she persevered to earn the nods of the judges.
“I can’t even expect myself to win because it was so hard to manage mentally being an athlete and a student, so this win came as a surprise,” said Wong, a freshman Medicine student at University of the East.
“While everyone was expecting me to win, I was thinking about my backlogs in school. I’m thankful that my school was very lenient with my reason to miss classes because I’m representing the country,” she added.
Malaysia’s Sydney Chin, who topped the taijiquan, came in silver with 19.196, while Brunei’s Basma Lachkar finished bronze in 19.160.
Fencer Sam Catantan could have added another gold in women’s foil, but she injured her left knee during her semifinal match against Singapore’s Kemei Cheung.
Catantan was leading 14-5 when she felt a snap on her knee. She fought in pain but still prevailed, 15-6.
Afraid to aggravate her injury, Catantan withdrew from her gold-medal match against another Singaporean in Maxine Wong.
In Siem Riep, Ronald Oranza returned to action and snagged the bronze medal in the mens’ road individual mass start.
Oranza, who won the bronze in the men’s criterium Thursday, May 11, figured in a seven-man sprint to the line won by Malaysia’s Nur Amirul Fakhruddin with Indonesian Ahman Cayadi settling for silver.
As of 4 p.m., Team PH remains at sixth place with 28 gold, 51 silver and 66 bronze medals behind powerhouse Vietnam, which now has 59 golds, 58 silver and 73 bronzes.
Host Cambodia leapt to second place with 56 golds, 44 silver and 54 bronzes, followed by Thailand (54-39-59), Indonesia (42-36-58) and Singapore (36-29-34).
Athletes in fencing, athletics and poomsae battle in the final rounds at press time with hopes of breathing life to the country’s medal drive after a slow day the past two days.
