Cebu cheers inspire judokas’ glittering feats

The Philippines dished out its best showing so far in the 23rd SEA Games judo event, carting away a pair of golds off come-from-behind performances by Gilbert Ramirez and Karen Ann Solomon yesterday at the Mandaue City Sports and Cultural Complex.

Heading into the final day of competition, the spirited Filipino judokas collected a total of four golds, one silver, and four bronzes to surpass their 3-4-4 gold-silver-bronze haul in the 2003 Vietnam SEA Games.

The 22-year-old Ramirez, an Airman 2nd Class sent Thailand’s Alexander Ralli sprawling on the mat for an ippon (full point) at the 4:05 mark to retain his -73 kgs. crown.

"I really wanted to win because I don’t want to be embarrassed before my countrymen especially to the Cebuanos because they’ve been really supportive to us," said Ramirez.

Ralli nailed the first point of the match, a koka with just 28 seconds gone in the five-minute match, but Ramirez staged a daring fightback to turn back the Thai visitor.

Solomon accomplished the same feat earlier as she fought back from a half-point down with still 4:16 left to conquer Myanmar’s Lay Kalyar Aung in the -63 kgs. final.

Lay was poised to frustrate the large throng of pro-Filipino crowd when he scored a half point in the first 44 seconds of the match.

But Solomon bounced back with a koka in 2:04 before employing a powerful hip technique to pin down Lay at the 1:50 mark.

" The cheers of the crowd inspired me a lot," said Solomon.

Solomon blasted her way to the final round after pulling off a stirring victory over Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Dinh also in come-from-behind fashion.

Nguyen drew first blood with a koka in the first few seconds of the five minute match, but Solomon scored half point off a grapple with 16 seconds left to clinch the win.