30th SEA GAMES-ARNIS: Pinoys show mastery of arnis

The Philippines sustained its domination of the sport as it harvested seven of the eight gold medals staked yesterday to match its initial projection of 12 with one more day to go.

Cheered on by a boisterous crowd at the Angeles University Foundation Gym here, the Filipinos didn’t disappoint with Jesfer Huquire, Elmer Manlapas and Carloyd Tejada coming through in the men’s division.

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Huquire rallied to edge Vietnamese Van Cong Quoc in the padded stick -55kg finals, Manlapas overwhelmed another Vietnam bet Duc Tri Nguyen in +55kg while Tejada won in the welterweight class.

The only gold that slipped out of the Filipinos’ hands came in the lightweight section where Billy Joel Valenzuela succumbed to Cambodia’s Yeng Mengly.

Interestingly, Mengly’s mint was the first for Cambodia in the 30th Southeast Asian Games after a gold-less Day One.

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The Philippines won seven of the eight mints staked in men’s arnis combat events.

After a slow, one-gold performance the day before, the women’s team came back with a vengeance as it swept all the four golds up for grabs in their division courtesy of Sheena Belmonte, Jedah Mae Soriano, Ross Ashley Monville and Abegail Abad.

Abad won over Vietnam’s Thi Huong Nguyen (bantam), Soriano turned back Myanmar’s Maw Maw Oo (feather), Monville dominated Myanmar’s Moe Moe Aye (light) and Abad capped the productive day by besting Vietnam’s Thi Cucv Nguyen (welter).

The Nationals came into the three-day event projected to scoop up 11 to 12 golds.

They delivered.

And the host nation is not about to slow down as it guns for more in the anyo or form event set today./ Joey Villar