THE Smart/MVPSF Philippine taekwondo squad won two silver and eight bronze medals in the recent 2024 World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in Hong Kong.
The partnership of Justin Kobe Macario and Juvenile Faye Crisostomo came through with a near-flawless performance to finish second in the freestyle over 17-years category, and so did Leno Maximuz Subaste and Julianna Martha Uy in the junior pair.
Their achievements were a fitting sequel to the gold-medal feat of Tachiana Mangin in the women’s minus 49kg class of the World Taekwondo Junior Championships in Chuncheon, South Korea, the country’s first since Alex Borromeo reigned supreme in the men’s minus 47kg division in 1996 in Barcelona, Spain.
Winning individual bronze medals for the team backed by the Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Olympic Committee were Darius Venerable (freestyle over 17), Ian Matthew Corton (male under-30), June Ninobla (male under-60), and Jaynazh Angelo Jamias (cadet male individual).
Asian Games bronze medalist Patrick King Perez, Juvenile Faye Crisostomo, Janna Dominique Oliva, Justin Kobe Macario, and Jeus Gabriel Derick Yape also made it to the podium in the freestyle team over 17.
Jamias was also a member of three-man team along with Kian Ezekiel Castigador and Xian Gabreil Gamata that finished third in the cadet male recognized team under-17.
Alfonzo Gabriel Tormon and Joniya Yua Ysabelle Obiacoro also clinched the bronze in the cadet pair in the event that gathered the best poomsae practitioners in the world. (Malaya)
