MANILA – Arnel Roa Mandal bagged a gold medal in the 9th Wushu Sanda World Cup in Hangzhou, China.
The Iloilo City native won the men’s 52kg division on Oct. 28 after beating Minh Duc Vu of Vietnam and Benghenem Abdelkarim of Algeria.
The victory was a big deal for the 23 year-old Mandal, who failed to participate in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia when his weight category was removed by organizers.
His fellow Ilonggo Francisco Solis failed to follow his footsteps and settled for a silver medal in the men’s 56kg event.
Solis, the 2014 and 2018 Asian Games bronze medalist, lost to Chinese Kang Li in the final round.
But the defeat of the 28 year-old was an improvement from his bronze medal finish during the previous edition two years ago.
Baguio City native Divine Wally, on the other hand, failed to defend her women’s 48kg gold medal after losing to Chinese Shimeng Dai in the semifinal round.
With a medal haul of one gold, one silver and one bronze, the Philippines finished fifth overall among 23 countries. Iran was the overall champion with seven gold medals, followed by China with six./PN
