Tuesday, July 03, 2007 Taekwondo games set record field
THE R-Power Tae-kwondo Club collared the overall title of the Regional Taekwondo Championships last Sunday, which saw the Cebu Doctor’s College Gym, filling up with an “ecstatic” crowd.
The jins of R-Power club of coach Raul Luna managed to snare nine gold, four silver and eight bronze medals for a total of 83 points to take the championship diadem.
Palarong Pambansa champions Jenessa Ver-gara and Jessette Pag-linawan rallied R Power’s gold medal surge.
Record
Paglinawan, who won the bantamweight division of the secondary division, was a gold medal winner in the 2005 Palarong Pambansa and is a former Team Cebu City member.
The other gold medal winners for R-Power Club were Hanna Niña Guia of the Children’s division, Catherine Bas of the women’s senior finweight class, Lord Jay Guia of Mini-junior fin weight division, Daryl Yap of the mid-junior flyweight class.
Also winning their respective divisions were Steven Carl Tan, John Mark Bas and Gerard Paglinawan.
With their exploits, Vergara and John Bas will advance to the National Samsung Best of the Best Championships this September in Glorietta.
Surprises
Turning up with a surprising performance, on the other hand, is Juphert John Remollo of St. Paul Learning Center. Remollo gave John Paul Tomarse, R-Power’s best bet who has never bungled a title in the past two years, a run for his money. The two 12-year-old black belts engaged in a stiff neck-to-neck battle, which had Tomarse winning by a small margin.
Taking second place overall in the tournament is ATC Taekwondo Club of Avenger Alob, which had seven golds, seven silvers and three bronzes.
Don Vicente Rama Taek-wondo Club of Meliwa Ga-butin and Kenn Taekwon-do Club shared the third place honors after finishing with identical 55 points.
Don Vicente had a 4-6-9 medal tally, while Kenn of coach Kenneth Toledo had a 2-10-4 medal harvest.
Kenn’s assault was led by nine-year-old junior blackbelt sensation Kaly Carcel, who showed excellent form to bag the 128-136 cm children’s advanced category.
Largest ever
Philippine Taekwondo Association regional head Tony del Prado said the tournament drew the largest taekwondo crowd ever in Cebu. The event had him and tournament manager William Ylanan awake until late Saturday night as they had to prepare a tall pile of fight diagrams and the drawing of lots of the more than 350 jins that competed in the tournament.
“Parents along with lolas and lolos attended while cheering wildly for their players. There were times when the crowd was really ecstatic. That was the loudest crowd ever in Cebu Taekwondo,” del Prado said. (MCB)
