Photo by Bianca Dava, ABS-CBN News

SUBIC -- The Philippines’ Dines Dumaan fell short of his target in the 30th Southeast Asian Games after capping the Pencak Silat National Team’s campaign with a bronze medal in the Men’s Tanding Class B (50-55 kg) event.

Vietnam’s Dinh Tuan Nguyen won against Dumaan, 3-2, during the semifinals held at the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center.

"We should have won but we fell short of time," said coach Nerlyn Huinde.

KICKED IN THE FACE?

Prior this, Dumaan made the rounds on social media after netizens, mostly Malaysian fans, slammed him for allegedly kicking Malaysia’s Faizul Nasir in the face during the elimination rounds on Tuesday.

Videos of the controversial kick went viral. The videos showed Nasir being dropped to the floor and being kicked by Dumaan.

But the jury, after reviewing footage of the match, ruled that the kick was to the chest, not the head, thus it was a legal move.

Dumaan dominated Nasir, 5-0.

The Malaysian fighter was carried off on a stretcher and brought to the hospital for treatment.

Malaysia has also acknowledged the kick as a legal move and has not filed a formal complaint against the Filipino athlete.

Dumaan was a gold medalist in pencak silat during the 29th SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2017.

IMPROVEMENT

Aside from Dumaan's third-place finish, Philsilat also snatched a gold in men's tunggal courtesy of Edmar Tacuel, and 2 silvers, thanks to the performances of Mary Francine Padios in the women's tunggal, and brothers Alfau Jan Abad and Almohadab Abad in men's ganda.

"The performance of the team improved compared to last time. They became better," Huinde said.

"In future, I want to improve our game so we could get a gold next time," she said.

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