14-year-old Arvin strong contender in changquan

BUSAN, South Korea – Teener Arvin Ting stayed in strong contention for a medal after the first event of changquan in wushu competition of the 14th Asian Games at the Dongseo University Minseok Sports Center.

Ting, 14, silver medalist in sword play in last year’s Kuala Lumpur SEA Games, tallied 9.30 points in the preliminaries to come in third behind China’s Xingdong Yuan and Hong Kong’s Hang To Yu.

Yuan, 25, a gold medalist in the world wushu championship in Armenia last year, had 9.46 points to tow the 18-man field going into the last two events. Hang had 9.35.

Former world champion Mark Robert Rosales could only come in at eighth place at 9.20 but the RP coaching staff is confident he could gain ground on the pacesetters in the second event today.

"It’s only the first day and I think we did well considering the kind of opposition we have," said national coach Samson Co, a former wushu artist and winner in the 1991 and 1993 SEA Games.

In the women’s side, May Lim was within striking distance of the leaders, placing fifth in the taijiquan with 9.38 points with Myanmar’s Khaing Khaing Maw, gold medalist in the KL Games, showing the way with 9.50 points.

Wushu is one of the two events the Philippines hopes to medal in the dwindling days of the Games, the other being taekwondo although it suffered opening-day setback with its three bets failing to advance past the second round.

Janice Hung, however, failed to get going early and was at 14th position in the women’s changquan’s first event with 8.7 points. China’s Li Ao was pacing the field with 9.36.

In the 52-kilogram sanshou (sparring), Marvin Sicomen defeated Kyrgyzstan’s Utkir Hundayarov to also make it to the next round.

Veteran Rexel Nganhayna, silver medal winner in the Asian championship and SEA Games, outclassed Indonesia’s Marentekx Alexander Edward in the 56-kilogram class.

Still seeing action at presstime is Joseph Pasiwat against Iran’s Mohonnadinasab Mahdi in the 60-kg with the victor going up against a tough Chinese rival.

Meanwhile, Eduard Folayang, a potential gold medalist in the 65-kilogram class, will make his debut today against Chinese-Taipei’s Chen Shie Hung.

The wushu squad trained for more than four months in China in preparation for the ongoing Asian Games.