THE first gold medal of the Philippines in the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan will have to wait.
Jean Claude Saclag settled for the silver medal in Tuesday’s final of the men’s traditional -65kg division in MMA, marking the closest the Philippines has come to claiming a gold thus far in the quadrennial showpiece.
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With the silver and bronze from the women’s kata team in Day 3 of the competitions, the Philippines slightly rose to 21st place in the medal tally with a 0-1-3 gold-silver-bronze tally.
China started to pull away in the medal standings at first place with 32 gold medals, followed by host Japan with 11, and South Korea with six.
Saclag lost to Otabek Rajabov of Tajikistan via unanimous decision at the Nagoya City Inae Sports Center as the maiden MMA competition in the Asiad drew to a close.
Karatekas Samantha Emmanuel Veguillas, Ysabielle Arrogante, and Rebecca Cyril Torres captured the day's other medal for the Philippines - a bronze in the women’s team kata category after beating Thailand, 4-1.
In boxing, medal hopeful and 2024 Paris Olympic bronze medalist Aira Villegas was ousted right in her first bout, losing, 5-0, to Sakshi Chaudhary of India in the round-of-32 of the women’s 51kg division.
At the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, three-time Southeast Asian Games swimming gold medalist Kayla Sanchez had a heartbreaking fourth-place finish in the women's 100m freestyle where she came just 0.18 seconds behind the bronze medalist from China.
Gilas Women 3x3 opened its campaign on Tuesday by beating Mongolia, 17-12, and Macau, 21-4.
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