MANILA – After campaigning and winning medals in the world stage, Ilonggo wushu fighters Arnel Mandal and Francisco Solis both want to win a gold medal in the Southeast Asian Games.
Mandal and Solis hope to finally show their wares in the upcoming SEA Games before retiring from wushu, they told a radio interview Monday.
Both natives of Iloilo City failed to participate in previous SEA Games editions because the organizers have left their events out.
“SEA Games is the only competition I have not won yet,” Mandal told Radyo Pilipinas 2. “I already won gold medals in other tournaments, so I hope to do the same in the next SEA Games.”
For his part Solis said he will “go all-out for a SEA Games gold medal” before he retires from the sport.
“I am not getting any younger, so I am really aspiring for a SEA Games gold before giving way to younger fighters,” said Solis.
The 23-year-old Mandal has just arrived from a successful gold medal defense in the 52kg category of the 9th Wushu-Sanda World Cup on Oct. 28 in Hangzhou, China.
In the same biennial competition, the 28-year-old Solis – a bronze medalist in the 2014 and 2018 Asian Games – captured a bronze in 56kg./PN
