Barbosa, Lagnada reign in taekwondo kiddies’ finals

Tiptop Shape’s Kirk Barbosa and Noleen Ann Lagnada of Butuan City scored convincing victories over separate rivals to rule their respective classes in the grade school division of the fourth Samsung Best of the Best National Taekwondo Championships at the Glorietta Activity Center Sunday.

Barbosa dominated Angeli Mark Barro of Clarkfield in the first two rounds and coasted to a 4-1 victory to bag the gold medal in Group 3 of the boys side while Lagnada nipped Charlumae Sumastre of Olympia in a high-scoring finale, 11-10, to reign in the girls’ Group I division of the event which drew over 400 young jins from all over the land.

Barbosa and Lagnada’s solid performances likewise netted them the best player awards handed out by the sponsoring Samsung. Other recipients of the top honors were finweight John Paul Lizardo (seniors-men), finweight Gerrielyn Arranzanso (senior-women), finweight Raymond Abellar (juniors-men) and flyweight Karla Jane Alava (juniors-women).

Other winners in the grade school finals were Celson Pascua of AIDA World TKO, Michael Telequido of NTU Tigers, James Luzuriaga of La Salle-Zobel, Devi Singson of Ilocos Norte, Gerry del Rosario of Cavite and R-Jay del Rosario of UST in the boys side and Myrlita Lalacsan of Olympia, Rosa Quiriado of Socsargen, Ynah Bonifacio of BSU, KC May Panes of Central Mindanao and Rochelle Joy Esteves, also of Central Mindanao, in the girls class.