By ADRIAN STEWART CO

Capiznon Dines Dumaan settled for a silver medal finish in the pencak silat event of the 32nd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games at the Chroy Changvar Hall in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

The Roxas City-native Dumaan suffered a 43-25 defeat to Indonesian world champion Khoirudin Mustakim in the gold medal match of the men’s 45-50 kilogram Class A Tanding.

Dumaan, a gold medal winner during the 2019 SEA Games, said he was surprised by the judges’ score as he believes that he has done enough to merit a victory against Mustakim.

“I just felt I was the more aggressive fighter out there,” the Capiznon athlete said.

“But the judges saw it otherwise surprisingly. And to think that [Mustakim] hit the deck thrice in our match,” he added.

For his part, Philippine Pencak Silat Association secretary-general Inier Candor said he felt bad for Dumaan as he drew the short end of the stick from the judges’ scoring despite being the aggressor.

“We feel there is a certain bias towards Indonesia. But in every fight, there is a winner and a loser,” Candor said.

“We’ll do harder, train harder, the athletes will work harder so that next time, we’ll make sure that we’ll return home with a gold,” he said.

Team Philippines also got three more bronze medals from pencak silat courtesy of Angel-Ann Singh in the Women’s Tanding Class D (60-65kg), Joash Cantoria in the Men’s Tanding Class H (80-85kg) and Denmark Abdurasad in the Men’s Tanding Class D (60-65kg).

Joseph Arcilla captured a gold medal in soft tennis after scoring a 4-1 victory over Muhammad Anugerah of Indonesia to add up to his bronze medal in the men’s team with Dheo Talayod, Mark Alcoseba, George Mendoza, Sherwin Nuguit, and Adjuthor Moralde

Meanwhile, Bambi Zoleta failed to double the feat of Arcilla as she settled for a silver medal finish in the women’s singles soft tennis competition after losing to Indonesian Dwi Pitri, 4-3 (7-4).

In athletics, Natalie Uy took home a bronze medal in the women’s pole vault event, John Cabang also had the same medal for Team Philippines in the men’s 110-meter hurdles and Aries Toledo also ended with bronze in the men’s decathlon.

Swimmer Jarod Hatch added another medal to his collection after finishing with bronze in the men’s 50-m butterfly, Moises Ilogon also had a bronze in the men’s 60-kg kun khmer, and Ronald Oranza also captured a bronze in men’s cycling criterium./ASC, WDJ