Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Ilongga Bags a Silver in Beijing Olympics

In what perhaps is the only good news to come out of the Olympics for the Philippines, a twenty-five year old girl from Iloilo City bagged the silver medal in the women's 52-kilogram sanshou (fighting) event in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The girl's name is Mary Jane Estimar and she hails from Barangay Dulunan, Arevalo, Iloilo City. After graduating from Arevalo High School, she worked at a local beauty parlor. She only started practicing wu shu (also popularly known as kung fu) three years ago.

Another member of the RP wushu delegation named Willy Wang won the gold medal in the taolu (forms) competition two days ago. Sadly wu shu is only a demonstration sport which means that their two medals will not appear in the official Olympic tally. Still, Mary Jane Estimar's victory along with Willy Wang's should be a source of great pride for the Filipinos especially in light of the fact that China is the land were wu shu originated. We definitely showed the world that the Filipino can hold its own and can even beat the Chinese at their own game (read more here, here, here and here).

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