Agatha wows ’em, rules taijijian

HANOI – Agatha Wong saved her best for last to rule wushu’s taijijian (taolu) event as the Philippine wushu team hit its target of winning two gold medals in the 31st Southeast Asian Games here.

Wong bagged the gold barely 24 hours after relinquishing her crown and settling for the silver in the taijiquan (taolu), the same event she won in the past two editions of the 11-nation event.

Later in the afternoon, Arnel Mandal won the team’s second gold, beating Laksmana Pandu Pratama of Indonesia in the finals of the men’s 56kg sanda, 2-0.

The 11-member wushu team will now go home with two golds, two silvers, the other one courtesy of Jones Inso in men’s taijiquan (taolu) and a bronze, also provided by Inso in taijijian.

“Because of little time to train our athletes, our conservative estimate was two gold medals and we achieved it,” said Wushu Federation of the Philippines president Freddie Jalasco.

“I’m so thankful,” said Wong, who admitted coming here with very little expectations because the Filipinos only had two months to train under a bubble setup in Manila.

“We must remember na may pandemic. Kaya yung kahapon I was thankful naka-silver ako. Kahit bronze pa yan I’d still be thankful,” said Wong, adding she can’t wait to go home.

“I miss my family,” said Wong, in her black Team Philippines tracksuit, after fulfilling the post-event doping requirements.

The 23-year-old artist made sure she’d keep the gold in taijijian.

Wong wowed the judges in the event that had the nine participants wielding a double-edged sword traditionally used in Chinese martial arts, and earned a score of 9.71 points.

Hometown bets Huyen Tran Thi and Trang Tran Thi tried hard to get the crowd going at the Cau Giay Gymnasium but couldn’t do any better than 9.70 and 9.69 for the silver and bronze, respectively.

Wong was asked if she was looking forward to next year’s SEA Games in Cambodia.

“Maybe. I don’t know. I’m not sure,” she said.