By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Sydney Sy gave the Philippines another gold medal after ruling her category in the Asia Oceania Sambo Championships on Tuesday, April 15, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Sy flexed her might and ruled the sport sambo adult women’s +80kg division after outlassing Mongolia’s Buyanzaya Ser-Ochir, 3-0, in the two-minute, 51-second contest.
Prior to her golden victory, she overcame Kazakhstan’s Arailym Abenova, 1-0.
Mark Striegl and Orlando Castillo Jr., however, were not so fortunate after falling short to their rivals.
Striegl crashed out early in the combat sambo adult men’s -71kg after yielding to Kazakhstan’s Niyetkhan Toleukhan in a tight contest that was decided by penalty points.
Castillo, for his part, lost in the combat sambo adult men’s -64kg after succumbing to Turkmenistan’s Mergen Durdyyev, 4-0.
With Sy’s golden victory, the PH team will go home with two gold and one silver medal, eclipsing its previous performance last year in Macau where it bagged three silver and one bronze.
It also put them at third place in the overall medal standings behind host Uzbekistan with 24 gold, five silver and 10 bronze medals, and Kazakhstan with 9-8-17 (gold-silver-bronze).
The other gold medal came from Aislinn Yap on Monday, April 14, in the sport sambo adult women’s -80kg, while Richmond Revina settled for silver in the men’s -64kg sport sambo SVI-1 (totally blind) category.
