Jomary Torres and Princess Aumagel Cortez struck gold in their respective weight classes on the third day of the 11th Asia-Oceania Sambo Championships Saturday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

Torres, ranked seventh in the world, needed only 17 seconds to silence Zhadyra Paiyz of Kazakhstan with a furious kick to the face to win the women’s -50-kilogram title.

The 17-year-old from Zamboanga del Norte said the kick came to her mind after noticing the height difference between her and her Kazakh opponent.

“Our game plan was really more focused on striking, especially punches. I didn’t expect the roundhouse kick to happen, but it came to my mind because my opponent was smaller. I tried it, and fortunately it worked,” Torres said.

“It’s amazing. We really didn’t expect this to happen.”

Prior to the championship match, Torres defeated Dilbara Raimzhanova of Kyrgyzstan, 7-0, in the semifinal last Friday.

Cortez added to the Philippines’ gold harvest as she scored a 9-2 victory over Mervet Berdikhanova of Kazakhstan to win the -59kg title.

Unfortunately, Sydney Sy was unable to join the gold medal march after losing her title bout, 0-8, to Kazakhstan’s Arailym Abenova in the +80kg division.

Not even the cheers of the hometown crowd could help Sy defend the title she won in 2021 as the mercy rule was enforced with 43 seconds remaining on the clock.