Jiujiteira saves Phl from medal shutout
Margarita Ochoa and Jenna Kaila Napolis fought their way to an all-Filipina jiujitsu bronze-medal match that the former won as Team Phl regained a winning momentum heading to the final week of the 18th Asian Games in various warfronts here.
A prospect of another double-medal haul loomed before Carlos Yulo was bumped off the Top Three then eventually settled for fourth place in men’s vault in gymnastics at the Jakarta International Expo Hall.
It’s almost the same time at dusk over at the Jakarta Convention Center when Ochoa and Napolis figured in a repeat of their all-Filipina title match in the Asian championships in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan earlier this year.
This time, they slugged it out just for the bronze medal as both were beaten in their third match in the day and had to survive the repechage.
As in Ashgabat, Ochoa proved to be the superior fighter, pulling off a 2-0 victory for the bronze that weighed a lot for Team Phl after a day of heartaches and heartbreaks, stopping the momentum of the contingent’s harvest of one gold and five silver medals in the first four days of competitions.
Even then, the Philippines dropped deeper behind the leaders among all the teams and among Southeast Asia teams in the Medal Tally.
China raised its haul to 60 gold, 41 silver and 23 bronze medals on the steady dominant showings of its world-class athletes. With the exploits of its own elite bets, Japan remained at second with 27-29-38, followed by Korea (20-2328), Iran (11-11-8) then the host country (9-8-13).
The Philippines, with 1-0-6, dropped down to sixth among the Southeast Asians as Singapore jumped past the Philippines, Malaysia (1-3-1) and Vietnam (1-5-9) on a two-gold blitzkrieg by Olympic champion swimmer Joseph Schooling.
Nonetheless, it’s a better day with the Philippine female golfers also making waves, rallying into the Top Three with a five-under second round of 139 for a six-under 36-hole total, six behind the Chinese and just four adrift the Japanese.—