MANILA – Already assured of at least a bronze medal, Dines Dumaan hopes to upgrade the color of his medal in the 2018 Asian Games pencak silat tournament in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Dumaan, a native of Panitan, Capiz, defeated Naorem Boynao Singh of India 5-0 in the quarterfinal round of the men’s 50-55kg Class B last Friday.
He will aim for a finals seat in his event when he faces M Nasir Muhammad Faizul of Malaysia in the knockout semifinals at 9:30 a.m. Sunday (10:30 a.m. Manila time).
“I am happy to have a medal already but my target is really the gold medal,” said the 23-year-old Dumaan, who captured gold during the 29th Southeast Asian Games last year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Pencak silat chief Princess Jacel Kiram, who discovered Dumaan, believes that the Capiznon has the tools to clinch a gold in this year’s Asiad due to his intense preparations.
“He’s a very hardworking athlete with a lot of promise,” Kiram said. “We discovered Dines from the national games. He then worked his way up the national pencak silat team after his impressive sparring with national team members.”
Aside from Dumaan, also assured of a bronze medal in pencak silat was Jefferson Rhey Loon, who also advanced to the semifinals after beating Almazbek Zamirov of Kyrgyzstan in the men’s Class D 60-65kgs tanding (sparring)./PN
