MANILA – Margielyn Didal bagged the Philippines’ fourth gold medal when she topped the women’s street skateboarding event of the 2018 Asian Games on Wednesday at the Jakabaring Sports City SkateBoard Stadium in Palembang, Indonesia.
The Cebu City native finished with a total score of 30.4 points in seven attempts to clinch the top spot. Isa Kaye of Japan (25 points) and Bunga Nyimas of Indonesia (19.8) trailed behind.
The 19-year-old was heavily favored to win gold after recently becoming the first Filipina skater to be invited to compete in the 2018 X-Games in Minneapolis.
The Philippines also captured a bronze medal earlier in the day with Almohaidib Abad placing third in the pencak silat men’s singles category at the Padepokan Pencak Silat in Jakarta.
Abad, a native of General Santos City, scored 445 points behind Indonesians Sugianto Sugianto (471 points) and Ilyas Sadara (460 points).
In boxing, Negrense Rogen Ladon and Carlo Paalam have also assured two bronze medals for the Philippines after surpassing their quarterfinal matches at the Jakarta International Expo.
Ladon, a native of Bago City, Negros Occidental, advanced to the semifinals of the men’s lightweight division after a split-decision victory over Azat Mahmetov of Kazakhstan on Tuesday night.
Paalam also moved on to the semifinals in the men’s light flyweight division after a hard-earned split-decision victory over Temirtas Zhussupov of Kazakhstan on Wednesday afternoon.
In athletics, Filipina-American Kristina Marie Knott reached the finals of the women’s 200m run while Trenton Beram failed to reach the championship round in the men’s 200m run.
Al Llamas, meanwhile, bowed in the round-of-16 of the men’s kurash after a 0-100 loss to Maruf Gaybulloev of Uzbekistan while Chris Hoffman also faded 0-101 to Kuralov Tirek of Kyrgyzstan.
Asian Games veteran Toni Leviste cleared all three qualifying round stints to reach the finale of the equestrian event. Fellow Filipino bets Sophia Chiara Amor and Joker Arroyo faltered./PN
