JAKARTA, Indonesia (UPDATED) – Divine Wally bags the Philippines’ fifth bronze medal as she lost to Iran’s Elaheh Mansoryan Samiroumi, 1-2, in the women’s -52kg sanda semifinals of the 2018 Asian Games. 

The 23-year-old headed into the match already assured of a bronze after defeating Petriwi Selviah of Indonesia, 2-0, to advance to the final four on Tuesday night, August 21. 

“I want to say sorry if I failed you guys this semifinals but I gave my best,” said an emotional Wally. 

“I think kailangan pa natin ng training nang maayos (I think we have to train better), we need to train more, we need to push ourselves to the limits more.” 

Mansoryan Samiroumi towered over the 5-foot-flat Pinay which hindered her from coming up with a good game plan to score points against the Iranian. 

“Yung natutunan ko this competition is we need more to set a game plan, like kung matangkad kalaban mo, alam mo ano gagawin mo, kung maliit yung kalaro mo, ano gagawin mo, ano game plan mo inside the ring,” added the 2015 world champion. 

(I learned that we need to set a game plan, like if your opponent is tall, you would know what to do, if your opponent is small, what do you do and what’s your game plan.) 

Wally’s feat surpassed her previous best finish at 5th in the 2014 Incheon Games. – Rappler.com