San Beda dominates NC senior taekwondo

MANILA, Philippines - Host San Beda displayed incredible form as it captured the men’s taekwondo title recently in the 85th NCAA tournament at The Arena in San Juan City.

La Salle-Greenhills, meanwhile, made up for a disappointing effort by last year’s champion St. Benilde in the seniors’ division by reigning supreme in the juniors’ class.

The Lions amassed a total of 394.08 points to secure their third championship.

San Beda edged San Sebastian and Letran, which wound up second and third on aggregates of 311.58 and 288.16 points, respectively, in the sport organized by the league committee chaired by Ding Lozano of Mapua with RP team coach Dindo Simpao as commissioner.

Dexter Cabradilla, a gem of a find from Pines City National High School in Baguio City, emerged the best performer to snare the Most Valuable Player award.

The Blazers, in contrast, went from being the titlists to fourth place after accumulating a disappointing 287.33-point performance.

“It’s a good feeling to become champions here because the competition is really tough. It was decided in the last few events,” said San Beda coach Noel Veneracion, who ended up Coach of the Year, in Filipino.

The championship was a fitting farewell gift to Cabradilla, Butch de Vera, Julius Cinco and John Ekid, who played their last year for the Mendiola-based school.

The Junior Blazers, for the part, accomplished what their senior counterparts couldn’t do by running away with the high school title with 429.91 points.

San Sebastian finished at distant second with 179.16 points.

Letran, meanwhile, for its part, topped the women’s event, which is a demonstration sport for the second season in a row, by accumulating 407.41 points.

Before the event, World and Southeast Asian Games poomsae champions Rani Ann Ortega, Janice Lagman and Camille Alarilla conducted an exhibition performance.

Ortega, Lagman and Alarilla teamed up in ruling the World Championships in Cairo, Egypt last year as well the 2009 Laos Games.

Lozano and Management Committee chair Jose Mari Lacson of San Beda said it’s possible that poomsae would be included as a demo sport in the coming seasons.