Muay’s John Brix Ramiscal and Tyron Jamborillo and mixed martial arts’ Travis Ratcliff earned a shot at a potential gold medal in their respective sports yesterday in the 3rd Asian Youth Games at the Exhibition World Bahrain here.
Ramiscal and Jamborillo blew away the opposition in finishing with the best score of 9.07 in the boy’s mai muay duo that ensured them of at least a bronze and one of the four spots’ in tomorrow’s finals where they would have a crack at the gold.
For the 17-year-old Ratcliff, he made the finals without breaking a sweat after Tajikistan’s Osimi Begmuodzoda did not make the weight in the semifinals of the boys’ 60-kilogram class in traditional MMA.
The Calatrava, Negros Occidental native would battle it out for the gold tomorrow with the winner between Satria Eka Suryo of Indonesia and Amirmohammad Hatamianafshari of Iran.
Interestingly, Ratcliff’s sister, Charlie, was fighting for a finals slot against Kazakhstan’s Anelya Tsoy in the girls’ 45kg modern MMA as of presstime.
Another Filipino in Alexander Tagure Jr. wasn’t as fortunate though after losing to Uzbekistan’s Avaz Anbvarov submission-neck and settled for a bronze.