SANYA, China — Leonard Grospe shone through the gloomy weather at the man-made Phoenix Island and captured Team Philippines’ second gold medal in the 6th Asian Beach Games here on Friday, April 24.
The 24-year old reigned supreme in the men’s high jump event in the beach athletics, clearing 2.05-meters on his first try to win via countback.
Grospe actually had to fight through slippery conditions following an unexpected early morning rain but nonetheless delivered against closest competitors from Chinese Taipei and China.
“Sobrang happy. Unexpected din po kasi sobrang dulas po talaga,” said Grospe.
“Thinking ko na lang maka-clear ako nang maayos eh. Kasi sobrang hirap talaga lalo na sa curving. It makes you slip. Pwede kang gumulong tapos pag nagkataon, pwede kang matapilok,” he added.
Taiwanese Po-Ting Yeh and Chinese Hao Zhang both claimed the silver after also clearing identical heights on their respective second attempts.
Meanwhile, it will be an all-Filipino battle in the jiu-jitsu women’s -57kilogram class after Annie Ramirez and Emily Rosalyn Thomas both advanced to the gold medal round.
The 35-year-old Ramirez outpointed Mongolian foe Shurentsegtseg Ehnkhmunkh, 5-0 in the semifinal while Thomas defeated Shamsa Alameri, 4-2, in their own duel to assure the country another gold and silver.
With Grospe’s triumph and the final clash between Filipina grapplers ongoing at press time, the Nationals are now assured of surpassing their previous haul of two golds, four silvers and 15 bronzes in just two days of the competitions.
Team PH is closing the second day at least on the third spot in the medal standings with three golds, one silver and one bronze.
Over at the Sanya River, the PH dragon boat team finished fifth in the men’s 100-meter race.
The Nationals just couldn’t sustain their good start and sorely missed the finals spot after only placing third in the semifinal race.
Needing to finish within the top 2 to advance to the next round, the Filipino paddlers clocked 26.334 seconds —just .3 seconds behind second placer Macao, China which recorded 26.04sec.
The team was relegated to the classification where it defeated Hong Kong with a time of 26.958sec to take the fifth spot in the standings.
