Fil-Am girl takes on ladies of taekwondo

GUANZHOU, China – Young Pauline Lopez, a pretty young lass with a pretty good experience in demolishing her opponents, opens the Philippines’ campaign for gold in eight events when the Asian Games taekwondo competitions get underway today at the Guangdong gymnasium.

Lopez, 14, the youngest in the Philippine contingent, has been endorsed as a last-minute replacement for Olympian Antonette Rivero, who was sidelined by injury two months before the Games.

The ninth grade student at Vistamar High in California, earned the slot when she won the Korean Open last month – a reward for her consistent good performance in the Best of the Best taekwondo national age group tournament organized by the Philippine Taekwondo Association.

Although her experience in the sport is basically limited to age group competitions, her gold medal performance in the Korean Open where she beat ladies at least three years her senior, convinced her national coach that she is ready to compete on the Asian Games stage.

When she was endorsed by the taekwondo association, the POC had to appeal to the Asian Games organizers to allow her to compete as a late entry.

“The coaching staff believed she should be given a chance. She is tough for her age,” said Samson of the new find who started on the sport five years ago while watching her father, Jun, a taekwondo expert, teach his students in the L. A. area.

Her coach is former national taekwondo jin Dean Vargas. Pauline is, of course, Daddy’s pet, and taekwondo is the least Dad Jun thinks his child should get into.

“When I first competed, my dad was scared,” said Pauline, but the elder Lopez eventually realized taekwondo is a possible world for his young girl whose elder sister is also a taekwondo practitioner.

Initial successes in age group tournaments and the watchful eye of Jun slowly honed the LA girl into a competitive athlete who no longer remembers how many gold medals she really has won since age 9.

And she keeps practicing regularly, after classes and during weekends.

“You can’t neglect training, you have to train and train because your opponents also train hard,” says the teenager.

In Guangzhou she’ll get to size up the seniors and see for herself how far she can go.