Silat adds bronze as Paalam enters semis
The Philippines gained one more bronze courtesy of pencak silat bet Almohaidib Abad while boxer Carlo Paalam made it to the semifinals of men’s light flyweight class on Wednesday in the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Abad settled for bronze following his 455-point showing in the men’s seni putra tunggal (form) event while Indonesia’s Sugianto Sugianto (471 points) and Thai Ilyas Sadara of Thailand (460 points) won the gold and silver, respectively.
It was the pencak silat team’s fourth bronze after Cherry Mae Regalado, Jefferson Rhey Loon and Dumaan Dines contributed bronzes in their respective events.
On the other hand, Paalam toppled an older and more seasoned foe from Kazakhstan, Termirtas Zhussupov, 4-1, to assure himself of a men’s flyweight bronze medal in the boxing action at the Jakarta Expo Boxing Hall.
Filipino Carlo Paalam (blue) slugs it out with Zhussupov Temritas of Kazakhstan during the quarterfinals of the 18th Asian Games boxing competition at the Jakarta Expo Boxing Hall in Indonesia. ASIAD POOL PHOTO
Paalam, the youngest on the eight-boxer Philippine team at 20, scored a 4-1 decision victory over the 30-year-old Kazakh — a former Asian champion and two-time national titlist of his country.
“He’s a smart boxer since he’s more experienced than me,” said Paalam, who takes on China’s Wu Zhonglin — a controversial 5-0 winner over Indonesia’s Mario Blasius Kali earlier in the day — in the semifinals on Friday.
Paalam clinched a bronze medal in each of the 2016 Asian and World Youth Championships.
Middleweight Eumir Felix Marcia was scheduled to fight South Korea’s Kim Jinjea in a middleweight quarterfinal bout late Wednesday.
Olympian Rogen Ladon already advanced to the flyweight semifinal and will take on Thai Yuttapong Tongdee also on Friday.
Meanwhile, Filipino-Japanese judoka Shugen Nakano suffered defeat to world champion Yeldos Zhumakanov of Kazakhstan, 0-10, in the round of 16 of the men’s –66 kg division at the JCC Plenary Hall.
Nakano earlier defeated Malaysia’s Chong Wei Fu in the elimination round, to reach the round of 16.
WITH ASIAD POOL
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