No poomsae in Asiad but jins upbeat

MANILA, Philippines - There will be no poomsae events at the Asian Games in Guangzhou this November but the national taekwondo team is confident of surpassing its haul of two silvers and three bronzes from Doha four years ago because of a strong showing at the recent Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Laos.

Philippine Taekwondo Association vice president and grandmaster Sung Chon Hong confirmed yesterday that poomsae will not be included in the Asiad calendar. The Philippine women’s team in poomsae – the taekwondo discipline where competitors are judged on form against an imaginary opponent – won the gold medal at the World Championships in Cairo last year and would’ve been a shoo-in for top honors in Guangzhou.

“There is no poomsae competition,” said Hong. “We started it at the SEA Games. But most probably, we will have it in the 2014 Asian Games.”

At the Laos SEA Games, the Philippines bagged a gold with the women’s team and two bronzes with the men’s team and mixed pair in poomsae.

In Guangzhou, 16 gold medals will be at stake in taekwondo – eight for men and eight for women. Each country will be allowed to enter competitors in six of eight weight divisions for both men and women. The eight weight divisions for men are finweight (54 kilograms), flyweight (58), bantamweight (62), featherweight (67), lightweight (72), welterweight (78), middleweight (84) and heavyweight (over 84). The eight weight divisions for women are finweight (47), flyweight (51), bantamweight (55), featherweight (59), lightweight (63), welterweight (67), middleweight (72) and heavyweight (over 72).

In Doha, the Philippine taekwondo medalists were bantamweight Tshomlee Go and welterweight Toni Rivero (both silvers) and finweight Eunice Alora, lightweight Veronica Domingo and featherweight Manuel Rivero (all bronzes). South Korea took nine gold medals, five in the men’s category and China claimed three while Iran, Chinese-Taipei, Jordan and Qatar took one each.

But in Laos, the Philippines brought back four gold, four silver and four bronze medals in a productive harvest. The gold medalists were Go, Toni Rivero, heavyweight Alex Briones and the women’s poomsae team of Janice Lagman, Camille Alarilla and Rani Ann Ortega. The silver medalists were finweight Japoy Lizardo, welterweight Marlon Avenido, bantamweight Eunice Alora and heavyweight Kirstie Alora. The bronze medalists were bantamweight Jeffrey Figueroa, flyweight Jyra Lizardo, the poomsae men’s team of Anthony Matias, Brian Sabido and Jean Pierre Sabido and the poomsae mixed pair of Jean Sabido and Ortega.

Poomsae coach Igor Mella said no one is assured of a slot for the Asian Games as qualifying competitions will be held to determine the team of six men and six women.

Hong said on Jan. 19, the PTA will pick the jins competing in the qualifiers for the first Youth Olympics set in Singapore on Aug. 14-26. The qualifiers will be held in Tijuana in March. Hong noted that the Philippines may qualify up to three boys and three girls in taekwondo at the Youth Olympics where the age range is 14-18. Taekwondo has 20 gold medals at stake, second only to athletics with 22 up for grabs. The Youth Olympics will feature 26 sports, including 3-on-3 basketball where the Philippines is one of 20 entries invited by FIBA, and in all, over 3,200 athletes are expected to participate.

The country’s overall head taekwondo coach is Rocky Samson with Kim Hong Sik supervising the men and Dindo Simpao, the women. Roberto (Kitoy) Cruz is in charge of the juniors team.

Mella said the country’s jins will be participating in competitions all year long, singling out as priorities the Asian Games, the Asian Championships, the World Poomsae Championships, the Korea Open, the World University Games in Vigo, Spain, on July 29-July 4, the Youth Olympics, the Global Martial Arts and Combat Sports Games in Beijing on Sept. 25-Oct. 2 and the Han Ma Dang Championships in Korea.

Although poomsae is not in the Guangzhou calendar, Mella said the national squad will continue training. The women’s team will defend its title at the World Championships this year.

“Our world champion women’s team is being invited to guest in lots of TV shows,” said Mella. “It’s really up to them if they want to do showbiz but I think they’re not hot for it. They’re very dedicated to their sport and they’re serious competitors. Still, you can understand why they’re being invited. They’re young and pretty. It’s really face value.”

Mella said while no one is guaranteed a slot in Guangzhou, he expects the Philippines to lean on veterans Go, Toni Rivero, Briones and Japoy Lizardo in the campaign for medals but didn’t rule out up-and-coming standouts like Avenido, Figueroa and Jyra Lizardo to score surprises.

Mella explained that new rules adopted by the World Taekwondo Federation since the Beijing Olympics will eliminate a lot of subjectivity in scoring bouts and said the Philippines will benefit from the adjustments.

Some of the new rules that Mella mentioned were the scrapping of the 12-point ceiling and the seven-point margin to automatically stop a bout, the disqualification of a fighter with an accumulation of four-point violations, the awarding of three points for a kick to the face regardless of impact, scoring two points for a turning kick to the body and the use of a video replay to settle a controversy.