Cebuano bags RP's lone gold in pencak silat

Cebuano standout Marniel Dimla broke the spell that haunted the Philippine pencak silat team by more than a decade by snatching its first ever gold medal in the Southeast Asian Games yesterday at the Cebu Coliseum.

The victory was made even sweeter as Dimla captured the gold medal in front of his fellow Cebuano as the native of the municipality of Ginatilan ruled the 70-75 kgs. division tanding event by dethroning Dinh Cong Son of Vietnam.

The 32-year-old Dimla, now a member of the Philippine Air force, was the Philippine's saving grace after two of its bets, the highly-favored Christopher Yabut and Annaliza Bea, could come up only with silver medals.

In his third meeting with Dinh, Dimla finally stopped the dominance of the three-time SEAG champion, registering an impressive 4-1 score.

Out to revenge Yabut's disappointing loss in the morning, Dimla stepped in the arena with a more determined heart.

Despite the strong physique of the Vietnamese, Dimla showed aggressiveness in the entire three-round bout, finding the right timing in the second when he scored a reverse sweep to put down Dinh.

Earlier, Dimla unleashed a bevy of punches, which accidentally hit Dinh's left eye.

Dinh tried to retaliate but Dimla, already gaining confidence with several kicks, was quick enough to notice the former's left leg already hurting.

Dimla connected another sweep in the final round to floor Dinh the second time, which drew loud cheers from the spectators.

"Nag-concentrate na lang ko sa leg kick, mao to ako gitira kay nakita nako may injury na siya. Natsambahan man, so mao na to akong target sipa-on iyang tiil niya nag-connect kaya natumba siya," said Dimla, who started as RP developmental pool member in 1993 and got into the elite squad in 1996.

"Masaya ako at dito pa ako nanalo satin. Kasama sa panalangin. Hiningi ko talaga. Dati sugod tapos puntos at atras yung style niya pero nakuha ko na yung strategy niya. Maski mabilis siya kay sa dati malakas yung powerplay," added Dimla.

Coach Suhartono, who served as a coach in Vietnam from 1995-2000 exploited his knowledge of his former team, saying he already knew the strategy that contributed to Dimla's feat.

Earlier, Yabut failed to meet expectation as he was not in his usual winning form losing to first-time SEAG campaigner Tran Van Toan of Vietnam in the men's 50-55kg.

PO2 Yabut of Nueva Ecija was floored thrice, one in each round paving for the 5-0 victory of Tran.

"I'm very upset but I did my best. Nasa focus naman ako pero naka-plan yung technique niya," said Yabut.

As for Bea, the goal of winning gold in the SEAG ends up unfulfilled and retires with silver on her neck.



Bea, a teacher in De La Salle University, was foiled in the women's 50-55kgs, bowing to Vietnam's Hyun Thi Thu Hong of Vietnam.

The Philippines ended its bid with gold, two silver and four bronze medals.