Courtesy: POC media
Alexandria Luz Enriquez claimed the silver medal in jiu-jitsu women’s -63kg after dropping an agonizingly close gold medal battle against Orapa Senatham of Thailand, Saturday, in the 2026 Asian Games at the Aichi Prefectural Martial Arts Hall in Nagoya.
In a grueling six-minute and 56-second championship match, both grapplers neutralized each other’s scoring attempts from start to finish.
Neither fighter yielded a single 2-point, 3-point, or 4-point maneuver, and both kept spotless discipline with zero penalties to finish regulation deadlocked at 0-0 on points.
However, Senatham managed to secure a single advantage point to edge Enriquez for the coveted gold.
Enriquez earlier outclassed her rivals — Palestine in the round-of-16, Kazakhstan in the quarterfinals, and Mongolia in the semifinals — all via submission — to advance into the finals.
Meantime, Andrea Lois Lao narrowly missed out a podium finish, bowing to Kazxakhstan’s Narankhishig Baasanjargal, 0-2.
Lao pushed the pace relentlessly and racked up two advantage points while keeping a clean sheet with zero penalties. However, Baasanjargal managed to convert a single two-point maneuver—the lone regulation score of the contest—and held off Lao’s late offensive pressure to escape with the 2-0 decision and the bronze medal.
Other Pinoy jiujitsu athletes David Miranda and Vito Luis Luzuriaga suffered early defeats in the their men’s -85kg round of 32 matches, Saturday.
Aside from Enriquez’s silver medal, the Philippine Jiu-jitsu team also bagged a bronze courtesy of Kaila Napolis in the women’s -52kg class, on Friday.
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