Female jins bag bronzes in Seoul

Filipina jins Mary Antoinette Rivero, Loraine Lorelie Catalan, Richelle Dinolan and Rachel Marcial grabbed four bronze medals after two days of competition at the second Korea Open International Taekwondo Championships in Seoul.

The harvest came at the heels of the Philippines’ wipeout in the World Proomsae Championships that preceded the Korea Open, which ends today.

Marcial was the first jin on the dais, clinching the bronze in the Olympic under-49 kilogram at the start of the tournament last Wednesday. She got off to a thundering start by thrashing Japan’s Ai Yamaji. An axe kick to Yamaji’s face gave Marcial the early lead in the first round and the Japanese was never the same after the strike.

Marcial, 24, took on Canada’s Ivette Gonda in her next match. They fought on even terms in the first round as the five-foot Marcial, giving up seven inches in height, used her speed to neutralize Gonda’s advantage in ceiling. But in the second round, Gonda scored on a brutal kick to the back of Marcial’s thigh, causing a cramp of the leg muscle.

With her mobility hampered by the cramp, Marcial tried desperately to stave off Gonda. The match was stopped after Gonda opened a 10-3 lead with the new rule of ending a bout when a fighter leads by seven in effect.

Gonda went on to win the gold. China’s Chen Dan took the silver. Marcial and Chinese-Taipei’s Liao Wei-Chun shared third place.

Marcial flew in on her own from the US to join the Philippine delegation. She is trying out for a slot in the national team competing in the Doha Asian Games this December.

In 1999, Marcial captured the Best Fighter award in sweeping her five assignments and powering Master Sung Chon Hong’s squad under coach Ramil Abratique to the National Open title. Two years later, she took the finweight gold at the Samsung Best of the Best Championships in Makati. Marcial settled for the finweight silver after bowing to Korea’s Bong Ho Choi on a 7-3 decision in the finals of the World Military Championships in Fort Hood, Texas, in 2002.

Dinolan was the second Filipina medalist. She claimed the bronze in the World lightweight category. Korea’s Oh Jung Ah bagged the gold and Chinese-Taipei’s Su Li Wen the silver. The other bronze medalist was Kazakhstan’s Dmitriyeva Ekaterina.

On the second day of action, Catalan pocketed the bronze in the flyweight division and Rivero, the bronze in the welterweight class.

The other Filipino jins in the Korea Open were John Paul Lizardo, Tshomlee Go, Manuel Rivero, Jr., Ernesto Juan Mendoza, Alexander Briones, Dax Morfe, Kathleen Alora, Kirstie Alora and Criselda Roxas.