Rookie Sophia Nicole Novino displayed grit and put up a gallant stand before eventually submitting to seasoned Kazakhstan fighter Karakat Rakhybay in the women’s youth -47-kilogram finals of the 11th Asia-Oceania Sambo Championships presented by the Philippine Sports Commission on Wednesday night at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

The Filipino bet held her own for nearly four minutes before tapping out.

In fact, Novino was impressive in her first major international appearance when she dragged Rakhybay to a 1-1 standoff early in the match.

“This is her first major sambo international tournament but Sophia did very well. She did well against a very strong opponent. She put on a good show so I am proud of her,” national sambo team coach Jerry Legaspi said.

“She is relatively new to the sport so she’s still adjusting coming from a judo background, but she will learn from this experience and definitely will do better next time,” Legaspi added.

The Kazakh, a back-to-back silver medalist in the world youth meet in 2024 in Cyprus and last year in Indonesia, pinned the local grappler down with 24 seconds left in the four-minute bout, forcing her to tap out.

“This is not just a big achievement for me but I also learned a lot,” Novino said.

“At least I got a point against a world-class opponent. This is just my first step,” added the 17-year-old University of the East student-athlete.

Still, Novino’s silver medal was the Philippines’ best performance in the competition organized by the Pilipinas Sambo Federation Inc.

Three more bronzes were added to the country’s coffers courtesy of Johan Matthew San Miguel, Daniel Justin Virtudazo and Julian Henry Flores in junior men’s combat sambo in the -58kg, -88kg and -98kg classes, respectively.