Olympians head cast in Samsung t’kwondo

Athens Olympics veterans Donald Geisler III, Tshomlee Go and Mary Antoinette Rivero will lead the elite field in the Samsung Best-of-the-Best Taekwondo Championships slated Sept. 1-5 at the Glorietta Activity Center in Makati City.

Now on its third year, the tournament organized by the International Management Group (IMG) is expected to attract more than 400 athletes from all over the country.

Aside from the three Olympians, other members of the national team seeing action in the five-day event are five-time SEA Games gold medalist Roberto Cruz (finweight), Danrey Velo (flyweight), JR Rivero (bantamweight), Jefferthom Go (featherweight), Alex Briones (welterweight) and Dax Morfe (middleweight) in the men’s division.

Competing in the women’s division are finweight Eva Marie Ditan, flyweight Dalen Cordero, bantamweight Jasmin Strachan, lightweight Veronica Domingo, welterweight Criselda Roxas and middleweight Sally Solis.

Events on tap in the five-day tournament, which is sponsored by Accel, Colours, Philippine Star, Ayala Center, Bacchus and Solar Sports, are senior men and women division (18 years old and above), junior men and women division (14-17 years old) and grade school boys and girls division (13 years old and below).

"We expect new talents to shine, new faces to be seen in this year. We have a large pool of talents. It’s just a matter of giving these talents the chance to show their skills," said Philippine Taekwondo Association president Roberto Aventajado in yesterday’s press launching at the Century Park Hotel.

Also gracing the press conference were Samsung Electronics Philippines president Sang Youl Eom of Korea, Philippine Olympic Committee second vice president and sailing association president Claudio Altura, PTA vice president Sung Chon Hong, national coaches Manolo Gabriel, Stephen Fernandez and Jobet Morales, and former Olympians Bea Lucero and Monsour del Rosario.

Samsung, the world’s leading name in digital technology, has pledged cash incentives worth P 1 million for the gold medalist, P300,000 for the silver and P100,000 for the bronze medalist in the Athens Olympics.

Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, through his son and MASCO chief Ali Atienza, also promised a house and lot to the Filipino gold medalist. Powerflex Team, four-time champion in the National Synchronized Poomse Competition and gold medalist in the World Taekwondo Hwarang Festival, also held a demonstration.