Alora snatches jins’ lone gold

After a stirring sweep of four gold medals Monday, the RP jins nearly got shutout last night and had to lean on Kristie Elaine Alora’s romp in the women’s featherweight division to save the day for the Filipinos in the second day of action in taekwondo in the 23rd Southeast Asian Games.

Alora, the gold medalist of the Korean Open Taekwondo, dominated Phonkeo Xayyavong of Laos and took a 12-5 lead when the match was stopped in the third round. The Philippines, however, lost its two other cracks at the gold medals.

The youngest of the Alora sisters was so dominating from the start as she gained a 9-4 lead over her rival after the second round. Up at 11-5, she put an end to Xayyavong’s hopes when she unleashed a turnaround kick that hit her Laotian opponent below the jaw.

Xayyavong fell down and couldn’t get up, prompting the referee to step in and stop the fight with still 1:05 left to go in the final round.

First Gentleman Miguel Arroyo and DOTC Undersecretary Margarita Tingting Conjuangco led the awarding rites for Alora with Vice-President Noli de Castro and former Gintong Alay chief Michael Keon sending their congratulations from the VIP section.

But that turned out to be the last big roar from the huge Filipino crowd as two other finalists — Alexander Briones and Ma. Criselda Roxas — bowed to their rivals and settled for the silver.

Briones, the 2003 World Championship gold medalist, succumbed 2-3 to Indonesian Basuki Nugroho who captured the men’s welterweight crown.

Roxas, a silver medalist in the 2003 US Open, lost her momentum in the last two rounds and yielded a3-8 decision to Thailand’s Chonnapas Premwaew who copped the women’s welterweight plum.

Briones’ fight with Nugroho was so close that they ended tied at 2-all after two rounds.  But the Indonesian bet never gave up and hit Briones in the hip area when the latter turned his back following a miss.

Roxas, on the other hand, lost her composure when Premwaew wrested the lead at 4-2 at the end of the second round.  Her desperate attempts to rally only backfired as the Indonesian scored mostly on her misses in the third round.

Earlier, three other Pinoy jins were booted out in the quarterfinals of their respective divisions.

Manuel Rivero Jr. was the first to lose, a sorry setback via sudden death to Taufik Krisna Nugraha in the round of eight of the men’s featherweight division.

Jeffrey Figueroa followed after dropping a 6-7 loss to Vietnam’s Dinh Thanh Long in the men’s flyweight quarterfinals while Loraine Lorelie Catalan, who advanced into the quarterfinals by beating Thai Yaowapa Boorapolchai, missed the semifinal round after bowing to Soe Soe Myar of Myanmar, who went on to win the women’s flyweight champ.

Malaysian Rusfredy Tokan Petrus made a big kick at the chest area as time expired to turn back Thai Dech Sutthikumkarn in sudden death and win the flyweight crown.

Chanatha Thanaroekchai of Thailand bagged the men’s featherweight title over Nugraha, 3-2, following a big kick with only 10 seconds to go.

The last six golds will be up today as the Pinoy jins will try to meet their eight-gold medal haul in Taekwondo.

John Paul "Japoy" Lizardo and Kathleen Eunice Alora hope to start the streak in the men and women’s finweight division, Vietnam SEA Games gold medalist Dax Alberto Morfe eyes a title defense in the men’s middleweight division alongside Veronica Domingo, the 2003 SEA Games lightweight champion who’ll be moving up to the middleweight category.

Michael Alejandrino and Sally Solis also aim to follow suit in the men and women’s heavyweight division.