Catalan, Wang, Estimar good for wushu gold

NAKHON RATCHASIMA – Willy Wang, probably the country’s brightest hope for the Beijing Olympics next year, struts his stuff as the 24th SEA Games wushu actions go full blast at the Chanapolkhan Institute of Technology Kabkanjana Hall here today.

Wang is the outstanding favorite in nangquan event where he’s the current world champion. RP wushu officials consider World Championship winner Rene Catalan (men’s 52 kg sanshou) and Mary Jane Estimar (women’s 52 kg sanshou) as their other top gold-medal prospects.

But they and the other members of the wushu team will have to go up against a tough Vietnamese squad which has placed third overall this year in the world wushu championships.

So confident are the Vietnamese that their 18-member wushu team, which trained in Kumming, Wuhan and Tianjin in China, predicted a haul of at least four gold medals in eight events of the taolu (form) and three in sanshou (fighting) categories.

The Philippines will also be pinning its gold medal hopes on taolu artists Pedro Quina (nanquan), Janice Hung (taijiquan), Daniel Parantac (taijiquan) and Mary Stephanie Agbay (taijiquan), who all won the gold in the Huangshan Wushu Taolu Championship held Nov. 19-22 in Beijing.

The team also had SEA Games gold medallists Mark Eddiva (65 kg), Benjie Rivera (56 kg) and Mariane Mariano (60 kg) in sanshou.

Lifetime honorary president Francis Chan was very modest in his assessment, explaining at least six events where the Philippines is strong have been scrapped in this SEAG calendar.

“I’m 100 percent sure we can get one gold, 50 percent two golds, and 30 percent three golds. Our other top wushu artists were left in Manila with their events not to be played here,” said Chan.

Top world contenders Edward Polhayang and Arvin Ting, who combined for four gold medals in 2005, were among those left at home. Catalan, in fact, was not included both in the world championships and SEA Games this year but was taken in at the last minute in place of Jason Domingo.

Ten from the 24 events played in Manila have been excluded in this SEAG. Filipinos ruled six of those events in 2005.

Vietnam, the Philippines’ toughest rival in wushu in the region, could well enjoy the advantage here with the Vietnamese tapped by the Thai federation to run the wushu competitions here.

Though having little knowledge of the sport, the Thais were tipped to win the first gold medal yesterday in duilian event. Thai officials had reportedlly requested other teams not to field strong bets in this particular contest.

“That’s a part of horse-trading in the SEA Games.

“The Thais wanted to get at least one gold in wushu,” one official, who requested not to be named, told The STAR.

Vietnam finished third overall behind China and Macau this year while the Philippines wound up with one gold, from Wally Wang, and one silver, courtesy of Jennifer Lagilag, who lost to Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Bich in the final.

In the 2005 world championships, Vietnam was second overall behind China with a 5-8-3 gold-silver-bronze medal.