Lizardo cops jins’ sixth gold

Filipino taekwondo jins closed out their stints with only one gold to show, courtesy of Japoy Lizardo in the men’s finweight division yesterday in the 23rd Southeast Asian Games at the Astrodome.

The 18-year-old Lizardo, the 2001 gold medalist in the Korean Open, pulled off a 3-2 thriller of a victory with a decisive kick in the last 30 seconds to edge Thailand bet Chutchawal Khawlaor.

"I waited for him to make the kick before making my move. Then I just stayed away from his reach until time expired," said Lizardo, who won the bronze in the first Asian Junior Taekwondo Championship in Taiwan and the silver medal in the US Open in Florida in 2002.

Although they failed to accomplish their target of eight golds, the Pinoy jins still emerged overall champion with 6-5-1 gold-silver-bronze.

Lizardo’s victory was only the brightest moment for the Filipino jins at the close of the three-day event as Dax Alberto Morfe, Veronica Domingo and Michael Alejandrino settled for the silver medals in their respective divisions and Sally Solis failed to barge into the finals and went home with the bronze.

Morfe had a tough time against his taller rival Nguyen Trong Cuong of Vietnam and succumbed to 2-5 loss in the men’s middleweight final while Domingo was outclassed by Che Chew Chan of Malaysia, who captured the women’s middleweight crown via a 6-1 victory.

Alejandrino also took a numbing 0-3 loss to a scrappy Vietnamese opponent Nguyen Van Hung, who copped the men’s heavyweight plum.

Solis got a 2-8 beating from Thailand’s Rapatkorn Prasopsuk who went on to win the women’s heavyweight title via a 10-4 triumph over Indonesian Amalia Kurniasih Palupi.

Another Filipina, Kathleen Eunice Alora failed to advance to the semifinals after losing 3-4 to Indonesian Francisca Valentina in the women’s finweight class.

The day belonged to Vietnam, which claimed three of the six golds staked, behind Nguyen Thi Huyen Dieu (women’s finweight), Nguyen Trong Cuong (men’s middleweight) and Nguyen Van Hung (men’s heavyweight) for a 4-1-8 gold-silver-bronze medal tally.