DAVAO City’s Marc Alexander Lim buckled down to work after his silver finish in the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games jiu jitsu competition at the Laus Group Events Center in San Fernando, Pampanga.
The 22-year-old owner of Limitless Fitness & Martial Arts Gym here trained as soon as he returned from the Games.
“I started training last night (December 11). It’s right back to work asap (as soon as possible). Not sure when the next competition will be but probably early next year. But regardless, I’ll be training,” he told SunStar Davao in a Facebook Messenger interview.
Lim said he fought a very stacked bracket in the men’s jiu jitsu -69 kilograms division. He first defeated an Indonesian opponent via armbar then toppled a Malaysian rival by points in the semifinals.
He recalled, “My finals was my usual rival from Thailand. He’s an Asian games medalist and Asian champion. We see each other in bigger comps and we have fought and beaten each other already. This time unfortunately, I lost a very close and exciting match by points.”
Lim was pertaining to Banpot Lertthaisong who defeated him in their gold medal match.
Jiu-jitsu was first included in this year’s SEA Games but the Dabawenyo had competed in the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (Aimag) and Asian Games.
Preparing for the Games was quite a challenge for him as he only came back from a knee injury. He focused on rehabilitation and conditioning in Davao before joining the national team to a two-week jiu-jitsu camp in Japan and back to Manila.
“I’ve been away from home for more than two months now and I rented a condo unit with mats inside and with the jiu-jitsu gym right across the street so that I could make sure I am able to train as much as I can,” added the Ateneo de Davao University graduate.
Though he is currently based in the city, he also trains and stays in Manila for a few weeks whenever there is a huge tournament coming.
On the cash incentives that he is set to receive from the national government through the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) via Republic Act (RA) 10699, which provides cash incentives for winners of the SEA Games to receive P300,000, P150,000 and P60,000 respectively for gold, silver and bronze finishes. On top of that, President Rodrigo R. Duterte will also give bonus to the medalists during a Palace ceremony on Cecember 18.
Lim praised the President’s gesture to acknowledge the athletes’ efforts.
He said, “It is very much appreciated because we athletes spend most of our time away from work or business to focus on training. Like for example sa camp na eto, napabayaan ko na almost everything just to be able to focus to get that gold medal for the PH and for Davao. I am very thankful to the President.”
He dedicated his SEA Games silver to the Philippines and to Davao City.