ARNOLD John Lasdoce and Jimboy Esma Tabotabo took up aikido in the midst of the pandemic lockdown just to beat the boredom when people were restricted due to COVID-19.
What started as boredom-busting now became a serious sport and a major achievement for the 23-year-old Lasdoce and 25-year-old Tabotabo, who both hail from Moalboal town in Cebu.
Lasdoce bagged a gold medal in Jiyu-waza men’s 19-Above Ninindori category. Then he teamed up with Tabotabo for the Jiyu Waza double category, where they ended up in second place.
The duo placed second overall in the ranking of the Aikido International Competition Euro-Asian competition held in Moscow, Russia, from May 29 to June 1, 2026.
“I was not expecting to win the competition since our Sensei told us to just seize the opportunity with the goal of just participating in it. So when we won, and it was announced, I was happy and proud that we brought pride and honor to our nation,” Tabotabo said in Cebuano during an online interview with SunStar Cebu.
“After the awarding ceremony, the Philippine National Anthem was played, and the Philippine flag was shown on the two monitors. That was the exact moment we felt so proud of ourselves because our national anthem was being played in front of everyone and in front of different nations. The Philippines was truly recognized,” Lasdoce stated.
Opportunities
While they started Aikido for fun, the duo quickly realized that the sport gave them the chance to travel internationally. Promised by their sensei or coach, Micheal Mccavish, the founder of the Philippine Aikido Association. Their international trips and competitions will be all-expense-paid trips. This became their motivation to train hard, as it is also their dream to travel without any financial hassle.
“We just started training during the lockdown when we were high school students to fill our free time, then our sensei told us about the opportunity to travel internationally without worrying about the expenses,” the champions shared in Cebuano.
Tabotabo is an upcoming fourth-year student in the Bachelor of Secondary Education major in Mathematics at the CTU-Consolacion campus, and Lasdoce is an upcoming third-year student in the Bachelor of Industrial Technology major in Automotive at CTU-Moalboal.
Looking ahead, Lasdoce and Tabotabo plan to keep training hard for upcoming competitions. Encouraged by their sensei their biggest ultimate goal is to fly to Japan and earn their very first black belts. / Bejay Chen Tabayag, Benedicto College Intern