BAGUIO CITY -- The Cagayan de Oro jins concluded their medal hunt by giving the City of Golden Friendship its fifth gold medal in the ongoing 2017-2018 Batang Pinoy National Championships here.
As of 12 noon Thursday, September 20, Team CDO already has five gold, three silver and six bronze medals.
Mohammad Solayman Macatoon Jr. handed Cagayan de Oro’s fifth gold at the end of the taekwondo competition on Tuesday night.
The 16-year-old Macatoon, a grade 10 student of Corpus Christi School, nailed the gold via 16-9 victory against Iloilo’s Julian Tingson in the male junior middle weight category.
Laizel Abucay, a female jin from St. Mary’s School, fell short of duplicating her gold finish in the last BP national championships in 2016 as she settled instead for a silver.
The 15-year-old Abucay, a member of the RP taekwondo junior team, shrugged in disbelief after losing to Daniella Malmis of Caloocan City, 19-23, in their female junior lightweight division.
Abucay, who represented the country twice in the international junior tournaments including the 2017 World Taekwondo Junior Championships in Tunisia, was leading by four, 19-15, in the final second round.
From there, she got suspicious why her foe connected points from phantom kicks that resulted to her controversial defeat.
“Ang buot pasabot sa Phantom kicks mao ang mga kicks nga wala nidapat sa gear, but dawat namo kapildehan no excuses,” said Abucay’s coach Ben Ree Toledo.
Another Oro jin, Allen Jade Perocho, delivered the city’s fifth bronze after only reaching the semifinals in the cadet light heavyweight.
Filipino-Australian Jay Lawson, a grade 7 student of Xavier University High School, snagged his second bronze and the sixth for Team CDO on Wednesday.
After getting his first bronze in the 200 meter backstroke, Lawson bagged the second one after finishing third in the 400 meter freestyle 12-under category.
Meanwhile, nine of Oro’s 10 boxers namely Jhasley John Illudar, Cyril Payla, Peter Payla, Dave Caspe, Rheil Gidor, Angelo Lofranco, Eljay Pamisa, Aileen Caranagan and Althea Porres barged into the semifinal round and in a better position to win more golds.
Only Joshua Jan Odvina was denied a medal chance after losing in the preliminary round.