DESPITE a lingering injury, Divine Wally played with sheer determination in winning the gold medal during the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
The former world wushu champion bagged the top spot in the 48 kilograms category after defeating Nguyen Thi Chinh to lead the country’s charge as four others also took home gold medals in their respective weight class.
“I got this shoulder injury in 2016 but it is not a major one so I was able to play through it,” added Wally, a University of the Cordilleras student taking up education.
The men’s squad was also triumphant in their conquest as Jessie Aligaga won the 48 kilogram; Arnel Mandal reigning in the 52kg; Francisco Solis in 56; and Clemente Tabugara in the 65 kg.
Fellow Cordilleran Gideon Padua finished with a silver after losing to Bui Triong Guang of Vietnam in the 60 kg weight class.
Wally’s gold medal will be her first after securing a silver in the 2013 edition. No sanda event were held during the 2015 Singapore and 2017 Malaysia SEAG.
But more than playing with her injury, Wally said the gold medal victory this SEA Games is one of the most memorable one as she won it in front of her countrymen.
“This is different from all the gold medals that I won because I got it here,” Wally said.
It also helped that former SEAG wushu gold medalist and ONE Championship former lightweight world champion Eduard Folayang, a cousin of Wally, was at the venue to cheer the national wushu sanda squad.
“Malaking bagay na nanuod siya. Eduard served as our motivation,” added Wally.