HANGZHOU, China — Jones Inso rose to the occasion, shining in what could have been a slow, dry day for Filipino athletes in the 19th Asian Games.
The 26-year-old native of La Trinidad, Benguet booked a third-place performance to cop the bronze medal in the wushu men’s taijiquan-taijijian all-around event on Monday at the Xiaoshan Guali Sports Center here.
Inso, a toulu specialist, scored 9.746 points in the barehand taijiquan form and tallied 9.470 in the swordplay discipline of taijijian for a total of 19.216.
Gao Haonan of China was unsinkable with a combined effort of 19.666 points to claim the gold medal while Hui Tak Yan of Hong Kong compiled 19.494 points in the two-way event for the silver medal.
“I really worked hard in training. I revisited my past performances and worked on my lapses to win the bronze,” said Inso, who claimed the country’s second medal after Patrick King Inso secured the bronze in the men’s poomsae individual event on Sunday.
Inso, who missed out on a medal in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia, was the first performer in the taijiquan and second on the mat in the sword act with only Gao, Hui and Chinese Taipei’s Sun Chia Hung surpassing his performance.
“It was really a challenge to perform first. When I was watching my opponents, I was both nervous and excited,” said Inso, who will next see action in the World Combat Games and the World Wushu Championships.
Agatha Wong was the nation’s female entry in the event, but the 2018 Asian Games bronze medalist fell short, ranking fourth place overall on Sunday.
Also emerging victorious were Alex Eala and the Gilas Pilipinas 3×3 team.
Making her Asian Games debut, Eala took only 39 minutes to rip Sarah Ibrahim Khan of Pakistan 6-0, 6-0 in the second round of the women’s singles event at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre.
The 18-year-old tennis prodigy was impressive as she clobbered Khan, who is nearly half her age, from start to finish to book a spot to the next round either against Aruzhan Sagandykova of Kazakhstan or Rutuja Bhosale of India.
“It was a great game and it was good for my confidence,” said Eala, a former scholar at the Rafael Nadal Tennis Academy in Mallorca, Spain who currently ranks No. 191 in the world.
Eala will also see action in the mixed doubles event with Ruben Gonzeles while Francis Casey Alcantara will seek to end the country’s long medal drought in the men’s singles event of Asian Games.
The last time the Philippines won a medal in the Asian Games was in 2006 when Filipino-American Cecil Mamiit clinched two bronze medals in Doha.
The Gilas Pilipinas, for its part, banked on the connection of JB Sajonia and Bismarck Lina in booking a 13-8 win over Jordan in the men’s 3×3 event at the Deqing Geographic Information Park Basketball Court.
With the women’s squad pulling out following the denial of its appeal to include two players, the Filipino cagers played with fire in their eyes as Sajonia and Lina combined for 10 points, including four in a row, that gave them a 5-2 cushion after trailing early in the 10-minute match.
