Jakarta – Veteran internationalist Divine Wally lost to a taller and more aggressive Samiroumi Elaheh Mansoryan of Iran, 1-2, in their women’s -52kg sanda quarterfinal match to settle for the bronze in the wushu competitions of the 18th Asian Games at the Jakarta International Expo here late Wednesday night.
The five-foot flat Wally tried her best to connect with her strikes, but the 5’6” two-time world champion Mansoryan evaded them, while connecting on her attacks to advance to the championship round today and possibly finally win the gold that eluded her during the 2014 Incheon, Asian Games, where she was a silver medalist.
Mansoryan, the world champion in Kuala Lumpur (2013) and Kazan, Russia (2017), will dispute the gold with China’s Li Yueyao today (Thursday) at 10 a.m.
Also the Asian champion in 2016 in the 56kg class, Mansoryan was simply too much against Wally as she aggressively dominated the Filipina in the final two rounds after trailing the first, 0-1.
The 24-year-old Wally, though, improved on her fifth-place finish in the Asian Games as she contributed to the Philippines’ medal haul with its fifth bronze and the second from wushu, counting Agatha Wong’s own medal in the women’s taolu.
The Philippines fell to 16th spot in the 46-nation Asiad with a lone gold and five bronze medals and is currently the fourth Southeast Asian country in the medal table behind Indonesia (fourth), Thailand (eighth) and Malaysia (14th).
Wally, the 2016 48kg champion of the Asian Championships in Taoyuan, was assured of the bronze after beating Petriwi Selviah of Indonesia, 2-0. She earlier subdued Mimi Yoysaykham of Laos, 2-0.
She took up the sport in 2013 at age 18.