Omengan bags 2nd gold in Asian wushu

MANILA, Philippines - Ken Alieson Omengan redeemed himself from a disappointing finish in the nangun event by winning his second gold medal of the seventh Asian Junior Wushu Championships yesterday at the Makati Coliseum.

Omengan, 15, topped the nanquan event of taolu for 18 years and below after scoring a winning 9.33 over Macau’s Choi Wai Keon and Nepal’s Bishal Thapa Sinjali, who posted 9.24 and 9.16, respectively.

It was Omegan’s second mint after spearheading the team of Faith Kiana Andaya, Joel Casem, Vanessa Jo Chan, Dave Degala, Johnzenth Gajo, Christian Nicholas Lapitan and Kimberly Macuha to the taolu group exhibition victory in Thursday’s inaugurals.

More importantly, Macau world juniors championship gold medalist Omengan erased the stigma of a forgettable eighth place performance in the nangun event for 18 years old and below the previous day.

 â€œI was really eager to bounce back from my loss the previous day and I’m glad I did,” Omengan, the pride of Trinidad, Benguet whose father, Sonny, is a police chief inspector, said in Filipino.

Compatriot Liana Faith Andaya barely missed out on the gold after her best score of 9.06 was surpassed by China’s Yu Huilin who logged 9.10 when she took the stage right after the Phl bet. Japan’s Furukawa Moka captured the bronze with an 8.99.

Andaya pocketed her second silver in the elementary jianshu with a score of 9.05 with another Chinese Yiyin Weiou grabbing the mint with 9.10. Malaysian Ma. Hui Qi Felicia got the bronze with 9.01.

Christian Nicholas Lapitan added a bronze to the host nation’s growing collection in the men’s elementary chanqquan with 8.98. He finished behind eventual gold and silver medal winners Hao Yu of China and Jason Keitaro of Indonesia with 9.10 and 9.00.

Due to the deluge of medals, the Filipinos are now running fifth in the medal standings with a haul of 3-3-1 (gold-silver-bronze).

China leads the way with an 8-1-0 harvest while Hong Kong (5-5-3), Macau (5-3-5) and Malaysia (3-3-5) come next.

Meanwhile, WFP president Tan She Ling disclosed the country’s bid of hosting the 13th World Wushu Championships in 2015.