Bruised Gretchen: The way of dragon lady

HANOI, Vietnam (Via Globe Telecom) — Karateka Gretchen Malalad, Miss Talent in a national beauty contest last year, showed lots of it and lots more on the cruel side of the sport as she fought with a bloodied mouth to outpunch Swiss-turned Malaysian Chua Ai Lee, 4-3, to clinch karatedo’s hard-to-find first gold in the 22nd Southeast Asian Games here yesterday.

Chua, silver medalist in the 2002 World Cup, unleashed a lunge punch that bloodied Malalad’s kisser. That could have been the end of the bout for the Filipina beauty, who underwent laser surgery recently on a dislocated left shoulder blade and suffered gastro-interitis just days before the competition.

But the 23-year old communication arts graduate,the Miss Talent in the Binibing Pilipinas last year, showed no signs of defeat, picked up the pieces and fought the fight of her life.

The punch was actuallay adjudged a foul by the referees, and Malalad won a point. She went on to maintain that lead to become the first of two gold medal winners of the Philippines that eventually fuelled a surge of seven golds in the day.

Eduardo Buenavista clinched the country’s second gold in athletics, winning the 10,000m run at the track and field stadium of the National Sports Complex.

Malalad pocketed a well-deserved win but other karatekas had to settle for a lesser color - bronze - in other events as they fell prey to the Vietnamese and biased officiating.

Junel Perania lost to a Vietnamese Saturday in the first round of the -70 kg category on officiating that infuriated both national coach David Lay and Italian consultant Giuseppe Romano. Diane Moral also lost in the -60 kg category in the earlier round and kissed her gold medal bid goodbye. They settled for the bronze.

Four others failed to reach the medal rounds under the sheer weight of the opposition. Clifford Nene, competing in the -65 kg class, Sugar Ray Metant (-75 kg) and Jerome Laplana (-80 kg) ˆ all in the men‚s kumite ˆ dropped out in the early rounds.

Malalad also faced a Vietnamese opponent, but the defending champion proved she was not the type to give up that easily despite the hometown crowd and unfair officiating.

She did not give the judges a chance to rule otherwise as she disposed of NT Bag Ngoc of the host team, also a gold medal winner in the +60 Kg in the 2002 Busan Asian Games, with a clear punch for 1-0 victory.

Chua, she said, was familiar to her, she was sure she saw her when she competed for Switzerland in the women’s World Cup last year.

"I remember that she represented Switzerland in the World Cup," Malalad said."I asked her if she was the same person, she did not deny it but maintained she is now a Malaysian."

"She was not a clean fighter, but I was able to come through with clear punches to win the match" she said. "Nagbunga ang mga paghihirap ko. Na-operahan ako (dislocated shoulder), naospital ako bago mag-SEA Games, at sa training, talagang grabe".

Give way to the Dragon Lady.