SILVER WINNER. Cherry May Regalado (left) won the silver medal in the Tunggal Puti event of the 18th World Pencak Silat Championship in Singapore on Thursday (Dec. 13, 2018). (Contributed photo)
MANILA -- The Philippines has won two silvers in the 18th World Pencak Silat Championship, which kicked off on Thursday at the Singapore Sports Hub's OCBA Arena.
Cherry May Regalado, a bronze medalist in the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia, finished second in the Tunggal Puti event while Jefferson Rhey Loon, James El Mayagma and Rich Rod Ortega got the silver in the Regu Putra event.
Loon is a silver medalist while Ortega is a bronze winner in the 2015 Asian Beach Games in Bali, Indonesia.
Singapore is hoping to surpass its best performance of four golds when it hosted the tournament in 2004. The island city-state also bagged four silvers and nine bronzes.
"We're looking at three from artistic events and three from match events. We have six athletes who are Sports Excellence (SPEX) scholars, and they have been training full-time," said former world champion and now Singapore Silat Federation (Persisi) chief executive Sheik Alau'ddin during the pre-tournament press conference at the Mandarin Orchard Hotel, in an article which appeared on the Straits Times newspaper on Wednesday.
Around 300 athletes from over 40 countries are competing in the four-day tournament, which Singapore first hosted in 1988. (PNA)
