MMA fighter Charlie Ratcliff and trackster Pi Durden Wangkay added to the Philippines’ gold medal haul in the ongoing Asian Youth Games in Manama, Bahrain, on Saturday.
The 16-year-old Ratcliff made easy work of Nakanataphon Khaihong of Thailand in the girls’ 45-kg modern MMA event.
“It feels wonderful. There are a lot of sacrifices to win the medal, the gold medal and the silver medal,” said Charlie.
Her brother Travis claimed silver in the boys’ 60-kg traditional MMA category.
“The sacrifices of time management for school and sports are now worth it,” she added.
Meanwhile, the 16-year-old Wangkay delivered the country’s third gold medal after ruling the 200-meter dash.
Wangkay clocked 21.76 seconds to secure the gold.
“At first po, noong hindi po ako nanalo sa 100 [meters], sobrang nalungkot po ako,” said Wangkay, who finished fifth in that event.
“Napag-isipan ko po buong gabi, pauwi pa lang po. Iniba ko po ’yung mindset ko dito. In-imagine ko po na local meet lang, na deserve ko ’to,” he added.
(At first, when I didn’t win the 100, it made me so sad… I thought about it all night, on the way home. I changed my mindset. I imagined this was just a local meet, that I deserved this.)
The gold medals from Ratcliff and Wangkay came after Kram Airam Carpio’s victory in pencak silat.
—Justin Kenneth Carandang/JMB, GMA Integrated News