RP's Wang bags gold in Beijing world wushu tilt

Willy Wang of the Philippine wushu team bagged a gold medal and bannered a productive campaign by the Filipinos in the recent 9th World Wushu Championship at the National Olympic Center in Beijing, China. A former world silver medalist, Wang made sure this time to finish on top, according to a statement issued on Wednesday by the Philippine Wushu Federation (PWF). Wang beat Indonesian Heriyanto for the gold in the nanquan event (Southern Fist style) of the meet that attracted more than 1,000 wushu athletes from 89 countries. According to Wikipedia, nanquan is a hand-to-hand combat style characterized by vigorous, athletic movements and low stances. Matsura Arata of Japan settled for the bronze medal, rounding up the top three in an event participated in by more than 150 competitors. The wushu organization also added that Wang was double gold medal winner in the 2005 Southeast Asian Games in Manila. Aside from the lone gold, the Philippine team also came home with two silver and two bronze medals to finish seventh overall in the world championship, a performance that should augur well for the country's bid in the 24th Southeast Asian Games in Thailand, which starts in two weeks. The two silvers were garnered by Jennifer Lagilag and Mary Jane Estimar, who both competed in the women's sanshou 48-kilogram and 52-kilogram division, respectively, while the bronze medals were courtesy of Marian Mariano (60-kg vision), also in women's sanshou and Benjie Rivera (56 kg) in men's sanshou. Sanshou, normally taught alongside wushu, is a close combat system that includes grappling techniques along with kicks and punches. Lagilag, a Baguio City native, advanced to the finals by overwhelming Naw Mar Htun of Myanmar in the semis, but lost to Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Bich in the showdown for the gold. Estimar, who hails from Iloilo, was outclassed in the championship round by Qin Li-Zi of China. She won over Farzaneh Dehgani Younarti of Iran in the semis. Rivera, also a Baguio native, went up and competed in the 56-kg division, eventually settling up for the bronze as Zhang Shuai Ke of China and Nazir Jian Qin dominated the top two places. Rivera was a gold medalist in the 2005 staging of the biennial tournament in Vietnam. Mariano was likewise only good enough for a bronze medal, yielding the gold to Luong Thi Hoa of Vietnam and the silver to Zahra Karimi Vardanjani of Iran. Other members of the RP team that saw action were Jessie Aligaga (48 kg), Jason Domingo (52 kg) and Mark Eddiva (65 kg), all in men's sanshou. As expected, China emerged the overall champion of the meet, which also serves as a qualifying event for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where wushu is a demonstration sport. China copped a total of 18 gold medals to finish first, followed by Macau with three golds. The week-long tournament, which was declared open by Liu Peng, president of the Chinese Olympic Committee, was held from November 11 to 17. Popular Hollywood and Chinese martial arts actor Jet Li was the special guest in the opening ceremony. The tournament, first staged in 1991 also in Beijing, is being held every other year. - GMANews.TV