Phl arnis continues gold haul

ANGELES CITY—The Philippines arnis women’s team scored a sweep while its men’s counterpart hauled three more golds to sustain their golden momentum in the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games at the Angeles University Foundation (AUF) Sports and Cultural Center here.

The women’s arnisadores—composed of Sheena Del Monte, Jedah Mae Soriano, Ross Ashley Monville and Abegail Abad—dominated to complete the stunning sweep in the padded sticks competition.

Del Monte overpowered Vietnamese foe Thi Huong Nguyen in the bantamweight (50kg and below) division while Soriano made short work of Myanmar’s Maw Maw Oo in the featherweight (+50 -55kg) category.

Monville, on the other hand, survived a close fight with Myanmar’s Moe Moe Aye in the lightweight (+55kg -60kg) class and Abad scored a hairline victory over Vietnam’s Thi Cuc Nguyen in the welterweight (+60kg and above) division.

The women’s victories matched the stunning sweep of their male counterparts in the full contact live stick competition and put behind their slow start in the same category.

For Soriano, the victory came easy and it proved the confidence she displayed in earlier interviews, saying that she will compete in front of her parents for the first time since taking up arnis when she was in Grade 3.

On the men’s side, the trio of Jesfer Huquire, Elmer Manlapas, and Carloyd Tejada displayed precise aggressiveness to seal the gold medal.

Huquire turned back Cong Quoc Van of Vietnam in the bantamweight (55kg and lower) class, while Manlapas handily beat Duc Tri Nguyen of Vietnam in the featherweight (+55kg -60kg) category.

Tejada, meantime, scored a convincing win against Vietnam’s Thanh Tung Vuong to raise the Phl arnisadores’ total gold medal haul to 12 with still four competitions left in the biennial meet.

However, Billy Joel Valenzuela failed to complete the men’s sweep as he bowed to Cambodia’s Mengly Yong in the lightweight (+60kg -65kg) division to settle for the silver medal.

Philippine Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation (PEKAF) president and Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri has expressed his elation over the continuing success of the country’s arnisadores and stressed that arnis should be included as well in other international multi-sports competitions.

The victories of the Phl squad had already surpassed Zubiri’s earlier prediction that the country will get 11 or 12 golds in the competitions as he cited Vietnam and Cambodia as the Philippines’ strongest rivals.