Kalinga martial artists unite to bring combat sports back to life

Combat sports are among the sports that struggled to keep afloat during the pandemic since the outbreak forced people to stay inside their homes and close contacts were highly discouraged.

After being ‘paralyzed’ for nearly two years, an intention to revive the combat sports was conceptualized as martial artists in Kalinga united and initiated an avenue to ‘bring back to life’ martial arts in the province, through the recently concluded Wushu tournament at the Kalinga Astrodome.

In an interview with martial artists Erwin Tagure, Denver Baden, Jheff Banasan, and Lloyd Lacwasan, they mentioned that martial arts have suffered during the pandemic, describing it to have been paralyzed since players could no longer go to the gym to train.

With a more relaxed imposition of protocols, they thought about coming up with a tournament to re-introduce combat sports to the people, most especially to the youth who have been confined in their homes during the pandemic.

To realize their vision, they opted to unite and strengthen their group through the organization of the Kalinga Martial Arts (KMA) to serve as a governing body for combat sports in the province.

With its organization, the KMA held its first tournament on November 27 at the Kalinga Astrodome, with at least 900 tickets sold.

Promote physical and mental fitness

Organizers conveyed that the re-opening combat sports in the province through the tournament also aimed to promote physical and mental fitness among the people, saying that this could be a weapon to fight the current pandemic.

“Daytoy pandemic ket nakukulong ngay iti tao, ket tattan agpa-ayayam tapnu i-promote ti physical fitness ken mental fitness,” Tagure said.

He added that the tournament also aimed at providing avenues for the young martial artists to showcase their skills and talents in Wushu.

Winners

Four different teams participated during the tournament, which include Team Tribu Banwar, Mass Fight Fitness Gym, Tabuk City Wushu Team, and Malayan Sports Combat and Team Siglat Fitness Gym.

The competition was composed of 4 categories – Kids Division, Girls Division, Supporting Events, and Main Event.

For the Children's Division, two matches were held with James ‘The Kid’ Mendoza and Jinn ‘Zamboanga White’ Francisco as the winners.

As for the Girls Division, winners are Charlene ‘The Dinosaur’ Nagoy and Mirian ‘The Katana’ Dongdongan.

Meanwhile, the champions for the Supporting Events include Cyrill ‘The Braveheart’ Alcido, Aljon ‘The Rush’ Dumlanos, Jenor ‘The Loverboy’ Lacwasan, and Alester ‘Magnum’ Tagure, John Rey ‘The Lucky’ Mendoza, Harizz ‘The Pretty Boy’ Mendoza, Ivan ‘Say-ang’ Bulawit, and Alvius ‘The Affliction’ Cordero.

Combat Sports Training Continuous

The Kalinga Martial Arts said that trainings for combat sports should be continuous to consistently hone the skills of players, considering that the goal is to compete.

They added that now that they have already established a governing body for Wushu in Kalinga, they also aim at training individuals who have the potential to compete while representing the Province of Kalinga.

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