Bereft of the excruciating pressures and high expectations that accompanied the ill-fated Filipino jins in Sydney four years ago, this year’s Magnificent Three appear ready to wage battle against the world’s best and may steal the thunder from the fancied boxers in producing the country’s first Olympic gold in 80 years in the Athens Games.
" I have a good feeling about this team. They’re focused, well-prepared, better-trained and mentally tough. Makikita sa mga galaw at mata nila sa workout.
They know they have a mission to accomplish," said national coach Jobet Morales.
The Filipino jins, veteran Donald Geisler, competing in the third weight class at under 80 kilogram, the talented Tshomlee Go, vying in the under 58 kg and the pretty Marie Antoinette Rivero, at 17 the youngest Filipino to have suited up for the Olympics, will be one of the last of the 16-member contingent chasing the elusive gold for the country.
They have made the grade by going through the Olympic qualifiers to advance to the Athens Olympics unfolding this Friday with Go emerging the third best in a high-powered cast in the World Qualification tournament in Paris late last year, losing by a single point to Spanish world champ Juan Antonio Ramos.
Geisler and Rivero, both gold medallists in the Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam, earned their tickets to Athens in the Bangkok bash last February.
With their berths under the belt, the three Filipino jins, toughened by numerous international stints the past four years, packed their training gear and joined the world’s leading and Athens-bounds jins in a two-month training in Korea with Morales and Korean coach Kim Tae Hyun.
Coach Kim is one of the hundreds of Korean taekwondo mentors sent to distant shores to spread the gospel of the ancient martial art.
In effect, Athens will serve as a yardstick on how far the rest of the world has caught up with the Koreans, the paramount force in the discipline.
For sure there have been inroads that led into the Korean dominance of the sport as could be gleaned from the feats of world champion jins churned out by nations like the United States, Spain, Iran, Italy, China and even host Greece and Athens will provide the ultimate challenge for the vanguard of this martial art.
And to further secure its status as an Olympic sport–this being its only second appearance in the Games–taekwondo has adopted a rule that would limit a nation to only two men and two women in the four men and four women weight divisions, greatly diminishing the chances of the Koreans in monopolizing the golds.
"The rule greatly enhances our chances of winning an Olympic medal, hopefully the gold, since no Koreans would be fielded in the weight classes where Geisler and Go would compete,"said taekwondo official Sung Chong Hong, the Korean grandmaster responsible for the tremendous growth of the sport in the country.
The three Filipino jins are aware of the tremendous task awaiting them in Athens but remained undaunted as they continue their rigid training at the state-of-the-art Moro Lorenzo gym inside the Ateneo campus at the Loyola Heights.
In fact, the Moro Lorenzo Sports Institute, led by chair Marco Lorenzo, son of the legendary cager, and Dr. Raul Canlas, the RP team’s medical officer, has quietly given the three jins full support in training. It allows them the use of the facilities, provides a sports psycholagy in Marissa Adviento and strength and conditioning coach in Esky Ripol, who had masteral studies in Australia.
"We’re now in the final week of our training and we hope things will be better this time. There’s pressure on us to perform well but that’s understandable this being the Olympics pero handa kami," said Geisler, a veteran of the Sydney Games and former silver medallist in the World Cup.
The 5-foot-8 Rivero, who has been into taekwondo since she was four and whose family is into martial arts, is excited over her coming participation in Athens, a dream come true so early in her career.
"At my age, parang napa-aga ang akyat ko sa Olympics so I’m really excited and focused for the event. It’s a great honor fighting for honor for the country," said the second year student at the Angelicum Home Studies whose entire family would be in the Greek capital to cheer for her.
She has a long list of achievements, including a gold in the US Open, a silver in the Korean Open and a bronze in the Asian Championship and she’s coming into Athens unfazed by the credentials of her fancied rivals led by the celebrated Hwang Kyung Sun of Korea.
"We’ve met most of them during our Korean training and we were able to gauge their strength. Alam na namin ang laro nila," she said.
A third place finish in the blue ribbon Paris qualifier where he met some of the world’s toughest jins gave Go the kind of confidence he would need in Athens. He hurdled five matches and lost only by point to Ramos in the semifinal and outclassed Great Britain’s Paul Green in the repechage match to nail the bronze and the ticket to the Games.
"Focused talaga ako sa mga laban and prayers really helped me a lot. We’ve done everything and we’re excited to compete in the Olympics," said Go who will see action on Aug. 26. Geisler and Rivero fight two days later.