JIU-JITSU stars Margarita “Meggie” Ochoa and Annie Ramirez are hoping their golden conquests in the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China would serve the sport in good stead.
“Hopefully, this will be a breakthrough for our sport because there are only a few Filipinos who win medals in the Asian Games,” Ochoa said. “The fact that half of our gold medals came from jiu-jitsu is a big statement.
“I really hope that because of this, more people get to know jiu-jitsu,” she added.
Ochoa defied the odds, fighting through the flu and a hip injury to beat Balqees Abdulla of the United Arab Emirates in the final of the women’s 48kg crown.
Ramirez downed Kazakhstan’s Galina Duvanova in the Big Dance of the 57kg event.
“No matter what we go through, we’re able to overcome them. For my personal experience, there were a lot of struggles,” Ramirez said.
“But we’re able to get past them. We’re able to bounce back.”
Ochoa, 33, is convinced Filipinos can hack it in jiu-jitsu.
“Filipinos can excel in this sport because, number one, we already have high level athletes here in the country,” the 5-foot Ochoa said.
“There is a wealth of knowledge that can be shared with the youth. Body-type wise, we’re perfect for it because look at me, I’m small.”
Kaila Napolis also bagged a bronze in the women’s 52kg class that enabled jiu-jitsu to notch the second-most medals punctuated with two mints for the country behind wushu, which produced four.
