PH bags 4 medals in World Wushu tilt

ARNEL MANDAL settled for silver after losing to Mahmoud Gomaa of Egypt, 0-2, in the men’s sanda ( contact sparring) 52- kilogram

- ished 15th out of 37 countries in the 15th World Wushu Championships on Wednesday at the Minhang Stadium in Shanghai, China. The 23-year old Ilonggo sanda

- ing the crown he won in the biennial world tournament in 2015.

Mandal, who retained his Sanda World Cup title just last year, punctuated the Philippines’ two-silver, twobronze medal haul in the International Wushu Federation-sanctioned tilt held from October 20 to 23.

The national wushu team won the same number of medals in the previous edition two years ago in

World Championships firsttimer Russel Diaz won the other silver following a narrow 1-2 loss to Praveen Kumar of India in the men’s sanda 48 kg.

Former world champion Divine Wally got bronze in the women’s 48 kg while Clemente Tabugara bagged the other bronze in the men’s 65 kg.

Other Philippine bets Carlo Baylon ( men’s 56 kg), Gideon Padua (men’s 60 kg) and Jennifer Kilapio (women’s 52 kg) were unable to win a medal.

Taolu (form) tournament bets Daniel Parantac, Jones Inso, Thornton Sayan, Agatha Wong and Johnzenth Gajo also failed to reach the medal round.

Mandal and the rest of the Filipino wushu athletes will be targeting the gold in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games to be hosted by the Philippines from November 30 to December 11.

The team will stay in China for one more week to complete its four-month training for the biennial meet.