Taekwondo chief hopes for rich haul

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Taekwondo Association president Robert Aventajado said yesterday he expects the national squad made up of 16 sparring and poomsae jins to bring home at least five gold medals of a possible 13 from the 25th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Vientiane, Laos.

Aventajado brushed off the country’s output of a single gold medal in taekwondo from Tshomlee Go at the last SEA Games in Thailand as “a freak accident” and expressed confidence that this time, the jins will break through.

“We used to average about five gold medals in every SEA Games until 2007 when I think the Thais got back at us after claiming we didn’t deserve our six gold medals in 2005,” said Aventajado. “But that’s all in the past. We should go back to our normal level of medals. It’ll be a tough challenge but I’m optimistic of our chances.”

Aventajado, who’s not joining the team in Laos, said the jins are eager to prove their worth after failing to crash the semifinals in 12 divisions for men and women at the World Championships in Copenhagen last October. Two years ago, Go bagged a bronze at the World Championships in Manchester.

“In spite of the difficulties in going to Laos with all the politics and bickering, I’m sure our jins will do their best for our country’s honor,” said Aventajado. “They’ll make us proud. Now is the time to perform.”

Aventajado said the jins are more focused than ever before. “They’ve trained hard and sacrificed a lot to get ready for the SEA Games,” he continued. “The introduction of poomsae is a boost for us considering our women’s team just won the world title in Cairo.”

Poomsae coach Igor Mella, in a text from Laos, told The Star he has high hopes for the jins who are entered in three of five events, the limit for any one country.

Jean Pierre Sabido, Brian Alan Sabido and Anthony Ray Matias will compete in the men’s team event while Rani Ann Ortega, Camille Alarilla and Janice Lagman are in the women’s team event. In the mixed pairs event, Jean Pierre Sabido will team with Ortega. Hostilities in poomsae begin at 10 this morning and the finals are scheduled this afternoon.

Ortega, Alarilla and Lagman took the gold medal in the women’s team event at the fourth World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships held last Nov. 30-Dec. 3 in the Cairo Stadium. There were 18 countries that competed in the women’s team event with Vietnam settling for the silver medal and Spain and host Egypt claiming a bronze each.

With vengeance as motivation, Vietnam looms as the female team’s biggest threat in Laos.

“It was our fourth straight year of participation in the world championships but in the first two years, we were only able to make it to the finals in a few events,” said Mella who coached a squad of six jins in three individual and three team events in the competitions that drew entries from 59 countries.

“Our three girls (Ortega, Alarilla and Lagman) are first degree cousins. They started training with me when they were around 11 years old at Miriam College. Now, they’re part of my coaching staff at Miriam and Claret School. Rani is a cum laude graduate in sports science at UP, Camille a graduate of management economics at Ateneo and Janice a registered nurse.”

Poomsae is the non-contact side of taekwondo where the emphasis is form or choreographed movement against an imaginary opponent. It is the counterpart of kata in karatedo.

The Philippines is not competing in the individual male and female poomsae events.

In sparring, the Filipino jins are listed in five of eight divisions for men and women. The men are finweight Japoy Lizardo, bantamweight Jeffrey Figueroa, featherweight Tshomlee Go, welterweight Marlon Avenido and heavyweight Alex Briones. The women are flyweight Jyra Lizardo, bantamweight Eunice Alora, welterweight Toni Rivero, middleweight Elaine Alora and heavyweight Criselda Roxas.

Rivero, Elaine Alora, Roxas, Avenido and Briones see action tomorrow at the Booyoung Gym in the National University. The preliminaries will start at 10 in the morning and the finals will be held in the afternoon.

Eunice Alora, Figueroa and Go will take their turns on Friday. Japoy and Jyra Lizardo will wind up the jins’ schedule on Saturday.

The Philippines has no entries in the flyweight, lightweight and middleweight divisions in men and finweight, lightweight and featherweight divisions in women.

“We need all the prayers considering the politics here,” said Mella shortly before attending Mass with the jins at the athletes’ quarters yesterday morning.