Judokas bare keys to success

FAITH in God, determination and hard training were the key factors of Davao City judo team's successful over-all title-defense in the 2012 Batang Pinoy Games national competition held at the Marikina Riverbank Activity Center over the weekend.

Davao City women’s judo team head coach Jay Aseneta, who guested with the rest of the team at the Davao Sportswriters Association (DSA) Forum at Tower Inn on Tuesday, said they kept praying to God and showed their willpower to take home a total of four gold medals, one silver and eight bronzes.

“Grabe ang giagihan sa among mga players didto kay klaro gyud kaayo nga gusto sa mga taga-Manila nga kuhaon ang overall title sa Davao City. Pero bisan unsa pa ang buhaton nila kabalo gyud mi nga kaya kaayo namo mauli ang titulo kay grabe pud ang training sa mga bata (Our players went through challenges since Manila bets want to strip us off our over-all crown but they failed because we were confident to defend it as our kids underwent rigid training for the tournament)," Aseneta said.

He, however, was dismayed by the biased officiating and the merging of weight classes that turned out to be very disadvantageous.

"It looked like our players competed in open weight category," Aseneta added.

He recalled Davao City’s Sydney Tancontian was bitten by Manila’s Eisleen Yu, yet, the latter was not at all disqualified for her behavior.

The veteran coach also said boys -66 kilograms bronze medalist Jay Cris Badiang could have made it to the finals opposite teammate Carl Dave Aseneta had he not succumbed to an illegal submission.

“According to international rules, joint locks are not allowed for U15 judokas. Badiang’s opponent was U15 but still went for an arm bar that hurt Badiang. Despite that, the player was not disqualified,” coach Jay explained.

Carl Dave, for his part, said his toughest challenge was facing Baguio City’s Jedd Diño whom he defeated in the first round. He then outclassed all his opponents to secure the boys -66 kgs. gold. His impressive showing earned him a full varsity scholarship at the University of the Philippines.

Nathaniel Malaki, who copped the boys 90 kgs. gold, was also offered a full scholarship from the University of Sto. Tomas (UST) for his feat.

Back-to-back Batang Pinoy Games gold medalist James Velez, meanwhile, said he was very confident to win the boys -50 kgs. gold as he went into the tournament prepared.

Girls -52 kgs. gold medalist Charisse Aseneta, for her part, told members of the DSA that she was in her best condition to redeem herself from a bronze finish last year.

Jhanen Marcos of Davao Wisdom Academy brought home the city's lone silver in girls -42 kgs.

DWA judokas Reighny Gayle Sanchez (girls' 78 kgs) and Chino Tancontian (boys' 42 kgs), Osmeña National High School's Jemarie Benito (girls' -52 kgs), Stephanie Calamba (girls -44 kgs) and Michael Ocleaza (boys' -42 kgs) and Holiday Judo Club's Ceejay Acla (boys' -60 kgs) salvaged bronzes.

The team's head coach was Paolo Tacontian who will be inducted as Philippine Judo Federation Mindanao president on October 13 at the Holiday Gym and Spa.