FILE–Jocel Ninobla.
HANGZHOU, China—Ought to luck and the judges’ admiration come to their support, poomsae aces Jocel Lyn Ninobla and King Patrick Perez may properly be the primary Filipinos on the medal stand of the nineteenth Asian Video games.
Each of them Southeast Asian Video games champions early this 12 months, Perez is No. 4 within the rankings of the boys’s particular person poomsae whereas Ninobla, a former world champion, may simply get previous the preliminary spherical when competitions start Sunday.
There’s a tall hurdle coming their manner although after taekwondo organizers merged the 2 poomsae disciplines—acknowledged and freestyle—into one occasion.
“We will likely be competing in each acknowledged and freestyle. It’s a giant problem since I’ve been extra into acknowledged since I began poomsae,” stated Ninobla, a three-time SEA Video games gold medalist in ladies’s acknowledged occasion.
“We educated and went to a number of competitions abroad, so it’s going to be a plus for us within the Asian Video games. We’ll simply give our greatest,” added the 2013 world champion Ninobla, who additionally bagged a silver and bronze on the worldwide stage.
Ninobla and Perez type a part of the 12-man taekwondo group right here, all of them aiming for at the very least a repeat act of 2006 in Doha, Qatar when the jins produced two silver and three bronze medals.
FILE–Philippines’ Kurt Bryan Barbosa (Crimson) compete within the taekwondo males’s -58kg elimination spherical bout through the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Video games on the Makuhari Messe Corridor in Tokyo on July 24, 2021. (Photograph by Javier SORIANO / AFP)
Two-time Asian Video games bronze medalist Kirstie Elaine Alora and Tokyo Olympian Kurt Bryan Barbosa are the most effective hopes within the kyorugi (sparring) group together with the veteran Samuel Morrison.
“They’re prepared. It’s onerous (to repeat 2006) however we are going to strive our greatest. That’s our problem,” stated Philippine Taekwondo Affiliation secretary normal Rocky Samson.
Philippine taekwondo introduced residence three bronze medals—two from the boys’s and ladies’s group poomsae—and one other from Pauline Lopez within the ladies’s -57kg within the 2018 Asian Video games in Jakarta.
Additionally vying for medals on the Lin’an Sports activities Tradition and Exhibition Centre are David Cea, Arven Alcantara, Veronica Garces, Child Jessica Canabal, Laila Delo and Jubilee Briones.
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