SPORTS

WUSHU TO MUAY THAI

Grad Gives RP Gold Medal
in Asian Indoor Games

By ALEX P. VIDAL

An unheralded Ilonggo former Wushu player who shifted to Muay Thai after he was overshadowed by fellow Ilonggo, world and Asian wushu champion Rene Catalan, emerged as the country’s hero in the sport considered as national passion of the Thais in the recent 2nd Asian Indoor Games in Macau.
Ruben Zumido, who created a stir in the tournament by scoring an upset win over highly fancied Metta Khetnok of Thailand in the light welterweight finals last Nov. 3, was already a member of the Philippine Wushu team but decided to shift to Muay Thai, said his former instructor Arnold Tinagan, owner of Tinagan Martial Arts gym, Iloilo City.
“Ruben started training in my gym when we were still in YMCA (Iloilo City), while he was still a (criminology) student at the University of Iloilo,” Tinagan said.
The Ilonggo instructor admitted that Zumido “never hit paydirt” in Wushu the reason why he left the event and transferred to Muay Thai which is his first love.
Zumido’s former teammate in Wushu Catalan became a world champion in 2005 and copped the gold medal in the 2006 Asian Games.
He also nearly didn’t make it to Macau for the second edition of Asia’s biggest indoor sports competitions after the Asian Games when he was meted a four-month suspension by the Muay Association of the Philippines (MAP) for punching in the face a teammate.
Zumido’s victory broke the Thai juggernaut in the sport they consider sacred, with Khetnok’s silver tainting their three-gold Muay Thai haul.
Zumido’s two teammates who also fought but lost for gold medal and settled for silver were flyweight Roland Claro who was manhandled by Hong Kong’s Chan Kai Tik and bantamweight Brent Velasco who was ambushed by Thailand’s Supachai Payunhan.
“When Zumido left Iloilo to find his luck in Manila, no body had noticed him. Now that he is the golden boy of RP Team in the Asian Indoor Games, everyone is talking about him, of where he came from and who were his mentors,” Zumido’s former schoolmate and former university boxer Ronald Cuambot commented. /MP