By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
National champion AZ Pamaybay routed Vietnamese Phe Ngoc Thanh, 9-3, to give the country its lone gold medal in the 12th Southeast Asian Karate Federation Championships in Brunei Darussalam on Thursday, June 19.
The eighth grader from University of Mindanao Tagum College in Davao del Norte highlighted his dominating performance in the cadet kumite male -57kg division with earlier victories over Indonesia’s Divaine Bagus Suduro in the round of 16, 8-0; local bet Awangku Hasimuddin in the quarterfinals, 3-0; and another Vietnamese in Nguyen Than Phu in the semifinals, 4-1.
Aside from Pamaybay’s gold, the PH team also snared one silver courtesy of Alexis Nicole Villacarlos, and 11 bronze medals.
Villacarlos lost to Vietnam’s Huynh Kim Tien in the junior kumite female -66kg.
The bronze medals, meanwhile, came from Aaleyah Magrata (cadet kumite female +61kg), Archail Monton (cadet kumite male -70kg), Johnzen David Resngit (cadet kumite male +70kg), Kelly Alexandre Trocio (junior kumite female -53kg), Bernardo Fresco III (junior kumite male -55kg), Leonilo Banes III (junior kumite male -61kg), Abdulhakim Abdulrakim (junior kumite male -76kg), Richelieu Felipe (senior kumite male -84kg), Rebecca Cyril Torres (senior kata female), Christopher John Cagandahan (U21 kumite male +84kg), and Bem Natividad (cadet kumite male -57kg).
