Pencak bet blows RP crack at 2nd gold

BANGKOK – The Philippines settled for a silver and three bronze medals as it dropped to 14th place in the overall standings in the first Asian Martial Arts Games at the Huamark Indoor Stadium in Thailand yesterday.

Jul-Omar Abdulhakim absorbed a stinging 0-5 loss from Luftan Budi Sanyosa of Indonesia in the finals of the men’s class B (50-55-kg) category of pencak silat.

Marie Charilou Rabino took the bronze in the women’s class D (60-65-kg) category while Joemil Solomon also bagged a bronze in men’s class D (65-70-kg) division.

Muay artist May Libao also won a bronze medal in women’s light flyweight class for the Philippines’ fifth bronze overall.

Jeffrey Figueroa delivered the first gold for Team RP with a victory in taekwondo last Tuesday.

But the RP bets, running 10th the previous day, dropped to 14th spot among 41 nations.

“I tried to be aggressive early on and kept attacking him, but the scores were not counted,” said 25-year old Abdulhakim. “At least, I reached the finals. This tournament is a good test (for me) going into the SEA Games.”

Meanwhile, Marna Pabillore of karate, Zaidy Laruan of muay and Mark Ediva of wushu stayed in the hunt for the gold medal in their respective divisions.

Pabillore clobbered Minh Phung Nguyen of Vietnam, 4-3, to reach the semifinals of the women’s kumite 55-kg while Ediva trampled Rinat Livensho of Kazakhstan, 2-0, in the men’s sanshou 55-kg.

Laruan is still competing with 2007 SEA Games titlist Kwangkhwang Weerapol of Thailand in the finals at presstime.