Calamba salvages gold

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

THE Cebu City Taekwondo squad hauled 11 medals in the Smart National CPJ Taekwondo Championships last Sunday in Manila to pull off the team’s best finish by far in the competition.

Leading the Cebuanos was Mikaela Calamba, who scored the team’s lone gold medal in the women’s individual category.

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Team Cebu City, which was headed by regional chairman of the Philippine Taekwondo Association Tony del Prado and coach Avenger Alob, also brought four silvers and six bronzes in the tournament that served as a tryout for the Philippine National Teakwondo team.

Meagan Bugarin took the silver, while Rinna Babanto won the bronze in their weight divisions in the individual events.

Babanto, Bugarin and Nicole Maurin captured the silver medal in the women’s team event.

In the juniors pair event, the tandem of Mikaela and Miguel Calamba won the silver, while Maurin and Cliven Giranaud snagged the bronze.

MacMac Alob and Miguel finished with bronzes in their weight categories of the junior men’s individual division. Marvin Agor also grabbed a bronze in the 1st Senior Men’s category, while RP team member Glenn Lava took the silver medal in the 2nd Senior Men’s category.

Miguel, Agor and Moses Bullicer also won the bronze in the Men’s Team category.

Team Cebu City only sent a 12-man roster but got the best out of it with 10 Cebuano jins winning a medal.

“This is by far our best performance in this elite competition. We credit it to the dedication and commitment of Coach Alob and Trainer Glenn Lava. We also have nothing but admiration for the dedication of our Junior team, which has an average age of 14. They had to go up against older competitors who were older and therefore have more developed bodies. Credit must also be given to the parents who had to accompany their children to practice six times a week,” said del Prado in an e-mail to Sun.Star Cebu.

All the medalists of this tournament were invited to the final National Team selection at the Philippine Taekwondo Headquarters at the Rizal Memorial Complex in Manila on Feb. 18. They will be battling for spots to the national team, along with medalists from previous world championships.

Lava is hoping to once again join the PH national squad, while Mikaela, Miguel, Bugarin, Alob and Babanto are optimistic about making the junior squad.

Del Prado also said that coaches from Manila schools approached him and offered scholarships to some of the players of Team Cebu City.