By ADRIAN STEWART CO

Ilongga rider Ariana Evangelista finished way behind the podium in the women’s cross country Olympic category of the 19th Asian Games Mountain Bike at the CSC Mountain Bike Course in Hangzhou, China yesterday.

The Iloilo City-native Evangelista ended up in 12th place in the 16-player field as she failed to finish the last two laps of the race.

Fellow Filipina Shagne Yaoyao ended in seventh place at 1:57.22.

Meanwhile, Ilongga boxer Irish Magno failed to progress to the next round of the women’s -54 kilogram category after losing to Uzbekistan’s Nigina Uktamova, 5-0, in the round-of-16 on Sunday night, September 24.

On the other hand, Olympian Eumir Marcial stayed alive in the medal race after scoring a unanimous decision win over Mongolia’s Dalai Ganzoric in the men’s 80kg round-of-32.

Ilonggo wushu bet Arnel Mandal kept his medal aspirations alive after defeating India’s Sunii Singh Mayanglamban in the men’s sanda 56kg round-of-16 match on Sunday.

For his part, Gideon Fred Padua prevailed over Thailand’s Ausma Pengthai in the men’s sanda 60kg round-of-16 game to progress to the quarterfinals round.

Ilonggo John Bryan Sajonia, John Bismarck Lina, Justine Sanchez, and Janrey Pasaol anchored Gilas Pilipinas 3×3 team to a 13-8 victory over Jordan.

Down 1-2 early in the game, Sajonia connected for three straight points followed by consecutive inside conversions from Lina as they established an 11-5 advantage.

As of yesterday afternoon, Team Philippines still has only one medal — a bronze medal courtesy of taekwondo jin Patrick King Perez in the men’s individual poomsae event last Sunday./ASC, WDJ