MANILA – The Philippines added another bronze to its medal haul when Cherry Mae Regalado placed third in the 2018 Asian Games women’s singles pencak silat on Monday in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Regalado, a native of Aklan province, finished with 444 points. Gold medal winner Puspa Arumsari of Indonesia had 467 points and Singapore’s Yazid Nurzuhairah Mohammad had 445 to place second.
It was also the country’s third bronze in pencak silat after the third place finishes of Capiznon Dines Dumaan and Jefferson Rey Loon in their respective events on Sunday.
In boxing, Negrense Rogen Ladon ended the string of defeats of Filipino fighters with a unanimous-decision win over Prem Chaudhury of Nepal in the men’s lightweight category round of 32.
A native of Bago City, Negros Occidental, Ladon – a 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympian – hopes to prolong his campaign as he faces Mahmetov Azat of Kazakhstan on Tuesday night.
Filipino-American Eric Cray earned a qualification for the medal round of the 400m hurdles after a third place finish in the semifinals at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium on Sunday.
Cray submitted a third-best time of 50.54 seconds in the third semifinal heat of the day to reach the finale slated Monday night. Filipino teammate Francis Medina fell short in his own heat.
The Philippines lost one of its medal bets in athletics. Decathlete Aries Toledo was forced to pull out from the competition after suffering an injury while practicing for the pole vault event.
After seven events, Toledo was on the sixth spot behind athletes from Thailand, Japan, China, and Qatar, and still had a shot of making a podium finish had he not suffered an injury.
Rio Olympian Mary Joy Tabal settled for 11th place in the women’s marathon while Janry Ubas failed to earn a qualification in the men’s long jump after finishing on 16th place in the qualifier.
The Philippines’ men’s dragon boat team was thrown off its rhythm by a false start and wound up fifth in the 200m finals at the Jakabaring Canoeing and Rowing Regatta Course.
The Filipino paddlers surged ahead early of the six-team field only to be recalled back to the starting line when host Indonesia took off prematurely, losing whatever momentum they might have had in the process./PN
