MANILA – Junna Tsukii salvaged a bronze medal for the Philippines in the 2018 Asian Games karatedo competitions Monday night at the Jakarta Convention Center in Indonesia.
Tsukii claimed the country’s 12th bronze when she defeated Raksachart Paweena of Thailand 4-1 in the women’s -50kg kumite.
The Filipina-Japanese lost in her round-of-16 match to Bakhriniso Babaeva of Uzbekistan 2-1 and was relegated to the repechage where she defeated Hawraa Alajmi of the United Arab Emirates 4-2.
Gu Shiaushuang of Chinese Taipei bagged the gold medal in the event while Babaeva Bakhriniso of Uzbekistan captured the silver.
In men’s boxing, Carlo Paalam and Eumir Felix Marcial scored contrasting victories in their round-of-16 matches to remain in contention Monday night at the Jakarta Convention Center.
The 21-year-old Paalam got the nod of all the judges 30-26, 30-27, 30-27, 29-28, 30-27 to pull off the unanimous-decision win over Tu Powei of Chinese Taipei in the light flyweight division.
Marcial, on the other hand, scored a second-round stoppage victory over professional boxer Kuok Kun Ng of Macau in the middleweight division.
In athletics, the Philippines’ Trenton Beram and Kristine Marie Knott both earned a qualification to men’s and women’s 200m run, respectively.
Filipino-American sprinter Eric Cray, meanwhile, failed to deliver in the men’s 400m hurdles finals as he finished on seventh place Monday at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.
Cray clocked 51.53 seconds, way behind medal winners Abderraman Samba of Qatar (47.66), Dharun Ayysasamy of India (48.96) and Takatoshi Abe of Japan (49.12).
“It feels terrible, man,” Cray said. “I don’t know what to say. It just hurts. I waited so long for the competition. It just sucks, man. I’m always happy representing the Philippines. It just hurts to go out there and run like that.”
Negrense Marestella Torres-Sunang struggled as well and finished on ninth place in the women’s long jump finale while Marco Vilog failed to earn a qualification in the men’s 800m run./PN
