Mark Lester Ragay, Mark Anthony Polo and Vincent Ventura shone brightest for Team Philippines after capturing the gold medal in men’s taolu at the 2023 IWUF World Wushu Championships in Fort Worth, Texas on Monday, Nov. 20 (Tuesday in Manila).

The trio displayed fluid techniques to gain the judges’ nods and score 9.616 points for the gold medal in the duilian competition, beating equally impressive rivals from Brunei and Spain.

Brunei’s Majdurano Joel Bin Majallah, Sain and Abel Wee Yuen Lim finished at close second with 9.613 points, while Spaniards Nestor Urzainqui Milla, Aidan Pose Martinez and Victor de la Plaza Schineper bagged the bronze with 9.433.

Ragay, Polo and Ventura’s golden triumph came a day after Agatha Wong clinched the silver medal in the women’s taijiquan event.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Kilapio, Clemente Tabugara Jr. and Arnel Mandal came close to bagging the gold medals in their respective sanda events, but settled for the silver after yielding to their rivals.

Kilapio absorbed a stinging 2-1 defeat at the hands of Vietnamese Lan Nguyen Thi in the 48kg; Tabugara bowed to Chinese Wei Guo, 2-0, in the 65kg; and Mandal lost to another Chinese in Tang Sishuo by gap point in the 52kgs.

Russel Diaz, meanwhile, claimed the bronze medal after losing in the semifinals to China’s Yang Zingmen, 2-0, in the 48kg.

Overall, the Filipino bets collected one gold, four silver and one bronze medal to finish at seventh place among 72 nations.

It eclipsed the country’s previous finish of one gold, one silver and two bronzes in the 2019 edition held in Shanghai, China.

As expected, China won the overall title with an impressive haul of 15 gold medals, followed by Vietnam at far second with five gold, three silver and three bronzes. Macau came in third with five gold, two silver and four bronzes.