FEU jins reign in Samsung tilt

Jacob Barroga dominated Archie Antonio of UST and fashioned out a 4-0 victory in the final of the welterweight division and led Far Eastern University’s three gold medal romp in the seniors division of the Samsung Best of the Best National Taekwondo Championships at the Glorietta in Makati late Thursday.

Barroga showed class and fighting savvy throughout their three-round duel, scoring on solid hits while effectively parring Antonio’s attacks to score the shutout win and bag the gold medal in the welterweight class.

Michael Angelo Realista nipped Carlo Manalo, 1-0, in the lightweight final for FEU’s second gold while Romelle Roa edged Jhundreb Allas in an all FEU-finale to cop the gold medal in the bantamweight class of the centerpiece division of the annual event sponsored by Samsung.

La Salle captured two golds with Gerrielyn Aranzanso and Michael Alejandrino pulling off victories in the women’s flyweight and men’s middle/heavy divisions, respectively.

The 19-year-old Aranzanso, gold medallist in this year’s All Women’s Open and the TBB/TBS Championships, defeated former winner Rachel Marcial in the final of the women’s finweight division to bag the gold via a 5-3 victory, contrary to what was reported yesterday.

A foul-up in the transmission of results had Aranzanso, a national team mainstay, losing the match but the organizers announced that it was the De La Salle bet who actually won the gold medal for a successful title retention bid. Marcial, 24, settled for silver.

Aranzanso earlier disposed of Natalie Maramba, Sharmaine Laurilla and Caryn Pilongo to reach the final of the event backed Burlington, Kix, Peak, The Ayala Center, The Philippine Star and Sunbolt,

Two UST bets also came away with gold medals, courtesy of Jurrie Bernardino and Esther Marie Singson, who ruled the men’s finweight and women’s bantamweight classes, respectively. Other gold medal winners were Carlos Padilla of NTU Tigers (fly), Loreto Velasquez Jr. of San Beda (feather), Monica Dianelo of Angeles University (fly), Rani Ortega of UP (light), and Monica Angeles of Lyceum (welter).

Meanwhile, action in the juniors division got underway yesterday with Abegail Punzal of Ilocos Norte, Jolanie Edu of AIDA-Butuan, Arpil Yra Tindoc of CAR and Eden Joyce Bince of Pangasinan hurdling their respective rivals to advance to the quarterfinal round of the ladies class. Other quarterfinalists were Pangasinan’s Catherine Dee, Hannah Marie Hubag of Iloilo and Rose Aquino of Dasmariñas. Mark Flores of East Rembo, Jason Baldonado of Powerflex and Gerald Paglinawan of Cebu led the quarterfinalists in the men’s juniors.

Meanwhile, the grade schoolers (13-and-below) strut their stuff today. Also on tap are the team standard poomsae and taekwon chejo events, which offer a total prize pot of P75,000. Poomsae showcases the forms and standard stance in taekwondo while taekwon chejo features taekwondo movements incorporated with aerobics, dance or gymnastics.