A LENGTHIER preparation as a team should be the key to success for the Philippines in next year’s World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships, according to three-time world champion Glenn Lava.
The Philippines ended up with a total of six medals — two silvers and four bronzes — in the recently concluded 2018 World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships from Nov. 15 to 18 in Taipei City, Chinese Taipei.
“Our performance as a team was strong and we were prepared, but there were a lot of stronger countries. I think what we have to do is to add and lengthen our training preparation,” said Lava, who won gold medals in the annual meet back in 2013, 2014 and 2016.
Lava along with Jean Pierre Sabido and Ernesto Guzman won the country’s first medal by winning a silver in the Recognized Poomsae Team Male Over 30 event on the opening day.
“If it is a world-class competition, you have to train the whole year round so that the players in the team and pair event will be able to sync with each other,” said Lava.
The final roster was determined just three months before the tournament.
Guzman got the second silver medal for the Philippines on the fourth day in the Recognized Poomsae Individual Male Under 40.
The bronze medal winners are Jamie Agaloos and King Alcairo in the Recognized Poomsae Pair Cadet event; Jocel Lyn Ninobla in the Recognized Poomsae Individual Female Under-30 event; Dustin Mella, Raphael Mella and Rodolfo Reyes Jr. in the Recognized Team Male Under-30 event; and Agaloos in the Recognized Poomsae Individual Male Cadet. (EKA)