Pinoy wushu artist bags gold in junior Worlds

MANILA, Philippines - Seeing the Chinese collecting gold medals one after the other, Filipino Steven Luis Ngo put on a show of his own en route to the championship in the gold and spear event in the second World Junior Wushu Championship on Tuesday in Bali, Indonesia. Not minding the Chinese's 10-gold romp in the tournament, Ngo banked on a combination of grace, speed and power to garner 9.31 points and beat Indonesia's Erwin Wijayanto. The 15-year-old's gold-medal effort in this event that gathered 60 teams from all over the world was the Filipino's best finish since winning a bronze medal two years ago in Korea. Ngo's performance capped his impressive showing in the worlds, emerging as RP's most bemedalled athlete after also securing a silver medal in straight sword event. Ngo lost the gold to Wijayanto by just a point. The Nationals also clinched two more silver medals courtesy of Henson See and Francesca Bernasconi. Bernasconi, a gold medalist in spear two years ago, earned a silver in broadsword. See also settled for second in the same event in the boys' category. It was a vindication of sorts for the Pinoy wushu bets, whose campaign was reportedly threatened by a lack of funding. See was beaten by a Singaporean rival while Bernascono, the most decorated junior player of the country, was upstaged by a Chinese bet. - GMANews.TV