2 Baguio jins, 4 others best players in MVP tilt

MANILA, Philippines - Two young jins from Baguio and one each from Olympia, Region I, FEU and San Sebastian emerged as the best players in the recent Smart MVP Best of the Best taekwondo championships at San Miguel by the Bay, Music Hall, Mall of Asia.

Carrying the colors of Baguio Defenders, Christian Dugtungan and Tristan Cayago reigned supreme in the Group 5 grade school event and the junior men finweight class, respectively.

Dugtungan whipped Region 1’s Vincent Guirao in the finals while Cayago outfought Olympia’s Ralph Luteria in the battle for gold.

The other top performers in the tournament supported by Smart Communications, Inc., MVP Sports Foundation and PLDT were Olympia’s Alexa Rabino (grade school girls), Region Region 1’s Thelma Caoile (bantamweight, junior women), FEU’s Romelle Roa (featherweight, senior men) and San Sebastian’s Justine Magdamit (finweight, senior women).

Magdamit toppled Baguio Defenders’ Patricia Sembrano, Roa beat teammate Jude Solis, Caoile whipped D’Club’s Zia Baluyot and Rabino tripped Baguio Defenders’ Aitana Fias-Ilon in group 3.

San Beda also won four golds from senior men’s bets finweight Eric Bunda, bantamweight Kevin Ngitngit, lightweight Alvince Cuvinar and welter Alvince Servito.

Letran finweight DJ Pacuan and SSC heavyweight Harris Zapata took the other senior men’s golds.

The senior women’s gold winners were Delta’s fly Alyssa Bonifacio, Baguio Defenders bantam Apriel Solimen, San Beda feather Reyna Alarva, UE welter Ysabel Mercado and SSC middleweight Ayie Casia.