Taekwondo projects 12 medals in Asian Games

It’s not surprising that the Philippine taekwondo team is among those expected to deliver come next month’s Asian Games in Busan, South Korea.

But to win 12 medals in all six categories where the Filipino jins are competing seems a bit too high a goal to achieve.

Not so, says Philippine Taekwondo Association (PTA) vice president Sun Chong Hong, who boldly expressed his confidence on the 12-man taekwondo team in yesterday’s edition of the PSA Forum at the Holiday Inn hotel.

"I believe and trust all of my players. All of them have capacity to win medals. I just don’t know what the color of the medals would be, but if we’re lucky, we can win 12 medals in all," said Hong, who will also serve as the RP delegation’s attaché in Busan.

The taekwondo official was accompanied in the public sports program sponsored by Agfa Colors, Red Bull and Pioneer Insurance by RP team coach Emmanuel Veneracion and jins Donald Geisler, Roberto Cruz and Eva Marie Ditan.

A year-long training under Korean coach Kim Tae Hyung, a former world taekwondo champion, and extensive international exposures that brought the team to Turkey, Jordan and Japan had the Filipino jins looming as among the potential medalists in the Asiad set Sept. 29-Oct 14.

To the shoulders of Geisler, Cruz and Ditan rest the daunting task of equaling, if not surpassing, the one silver and three bronze medals the Filipino jins won in the Bangkok Asiad four years ago.

The silver medal was courtesy of Geisler, then campaigning in the featherweight class but has now been elevated in the welterweight division.

Veneracion admitted the jins have always been hard pressed to deliver as the case was during the 2000 Sydney Olympics where they unfortunately bombed out of the medal race.

But he did say that the Filipinos are raring to go this time, and went on to cite preparations, experience and a bit of luck are factors that will play key roles in the jins’ Asiad campaign.

The RP team mentor considers Vietnam, Iran and host South Korea as among the countries expected to figure prominently in the medal tally.

The taekwondo squad leaves for Korea on Monday to wind up its training that began as early as January. The jins return on the 29th.