Abubakar topples Ukrainian

CHENGDU, China — Rudzma Abubakar put on a worthy performance at the Sichuan Gymnasium, cutting Ukrainian Anastasiia Mykhailenko down to size, 30-27, in their women’s muay thai -48kg quarterfinal match on Friday in the World Games.

With her European foe imposing her size and reach advantage early on, Abubakar fished for the perfect timing and found one that opened a cut on the Ukrainian’s right eyebrow in the second, allowing herself to dictate the match and win all three rounds.

While advancing to the semis seemed like a relief for the Filipino striker, nothing can ease out the tension as she is facing Chinese bet Xiaohui Lui in the next round.

Lui beat Singapore’s Cheryl Gwa Wei Ying, and should be a big thorn to Abubakar’s medal hopes with the former having the support of the entire gymnasium.

The semifinals is set Saturday at 6 p.m.

“I am confident because Rudzma trained hard for this competition,” said Stephen Arapoc, the Team Philippine Chef de Mission and also the muay thai association president.

Abubakar is supported by the Philippine Olympic Committee and backed by the Philippine Sports Commission.

Meanwhile, Agatha Wong placed eighth out of the nine participants with one event left in women’s taolu at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Centre on Friday.

Wong, a five-time Southeast Asian Games champion, earned 9.160 points in taijiquan or bare hands and will now try her best to perform well in taijijian or sword in the evening contest set at 7:50 p.m.

The medalists will be determined after combining the scores in the two wushu practices.

Zhuoling Lu of host nation China topped taijiquan with 9.796 points, while Zeanne Law of Singapore (9.740) and Basma Lachkar (9.720) followed suit.

Also competing in the evening is wushu bet Jones Llabres Inso.