Jins fall silver short of title

HO CHI MINH (Via Globe Telecom) — Though improving on their performance the last time, the Philippine taekwondo jins felt some tinge of sadness as they went a silver medal short of regaining the overall championship in their event in the 22nd Southeast Asian Games.

"Our goal was to regain the No. 1 spot and we missed it," said Team Philippines head coach Manolo Gabriel as they lost the overall crown to the host team practically by a nose.

The RP jins harvested five golds, three silvers and six bronzes while the Vietnamese collected the same number of golds with four silvers and four bronzes.

"Sayang isa lang doon sa six bronzes natin naging silver sana, No. 1 na uli tayo sa SEAG taekwondo," said Gabriel.

Among the bronzes Gabriel thought should have been a gold or silver were those won by six-time SEAG champion Roberto "Kitoy" Cruz and the Athens-bound Tsomlee Go.

"Kaya lang no matter how good a fighter is, kapag hindi nag-register sa scoreboard yung mga tira niya, wala rin," said Gabriel, hinting Cruz and Go became victims of biased judging.

Team Philippines was seeking to regain the overall championship wrested by Vietnam in 1999. The Vietnamese made it two in a row in Kuala Lumpur with the Filipinos winning only three golds.

"But with five golds, pwede na rin sigurong sabihin na we had a successful campaign here," Gabriel said.

An intensive training in Korea plus two international exposures–Korea Open and World Championships in Germany–honed up the Pinoy jinns for the tough grind here.

"Preparation-wise, our athletes got the training and exposure they needed. Armed and ready for battle lahat," Gabriel said.

Delivering the golds for the team were lightweight Veronica Domingo, middleweight Margarita Bonifacio, featherweight Mary Antoinette Rivero, middleweight Dax Alberto Morfe and lightweight Donnie Geisler.