Korea overall leader with 5 golds: Pinoys shine in WTF world poomsae

MANILA, Philippines - Team Philippines showcased its topnotch form as it collared two gold medals and one silver after two days of action in the ninth WTF World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

The Filipinos delivered a winning performance in the freestyle mixed over-17 event last Friday to follow up their opening-day triumph in the male team over-30 play.

Glenn Lava, Jeordan Dominguez, Jaylord Seridon, Janice Lagman and Rani Ortega impressed the judges with their execution, earning 7.880 to beat Turkey’s Murat Sarikus, Seyyid Firat, Serdar Can, Fatma Torehan and Kubra Dagli, who posted a second-best 7.640.

The US and host Mexico shared third place honors.

Cebuano Lava hiked his personal collection in the four-day, 46-nation meet to two mints. He had previously joined forces with Ernesto de Guzman and JP Sabido in defending the male team over-30 title at the expense of Americans Chau Truong, Anh Nguyen, and Justin Wang.

De Guzman fell short of adding a third gold to Phl as he settled for the silver in the male individual under-40 event. Turkey’s Mevlut Pekcan denied de Guzman of the top plum with a score of 8.45 that narrowly beat the Pinoy bet’s 8.42. Korean Jin han Lee and Vietnamese Quoc Minh Nguyen shared the bronze.

Phl couldn’t duplicate the feats in the distaff side, though.

Lagman, Ortega and new member Juvenile Faye Crisostomo placed fifth in the female team over-30 that was dominated by Vietnam’s Tuyet Van Chau, Thi Le Kim Nguyen and Thuy Xuan Linh Nguyen.

Competing in the freestyle female individual, Crisostomo wound up sixth behind winner Adaliz Muñoz of the US, silver medalist Yulia Popova of Russia, third-placers Thi Tuy Dung Ngo of Vietnam and Winnie Acuy of Peru and No. 5 Dagli ofTurkey.

Korea led the way with five golds so far while Phl, Turkey and China had two apiece. The Pinoys’ SEAG rival Vietnam has one gold to show but with two silvers and four bronzes halfway through the competition featuring 461 athletes from 46 countries.