Ilonggo jins made waves in the international arena as they bagged one gold, five silver, and eight bronze medals in the 2019 Best of the Best Taekwondo Championships at the Ayala Malls, Manila, Oct. 19.

The Iloilo City-based team was led by lone gold medalist Julianna Martha Uy, who ruled the Individual Poomsae. The Mark V. Pinggol-mentored jin defeated other competing players in the country.

Four MVP Iloilo jins also brought home the bronze medal in the Individual Poomsae – Niesha Kariz Pequierda, Crisgel Castro, Cyd Edryc Esmaña, and Joshua Cachero.

The elementary Team Poomsae also grabbed the bronze medal, courtesy of Uy, Pequierda, and Castro. Rozennie Zane Tameta partnered with Cachero in winning the Junior Mixed Pair Poomsae.

In Kyorugi, Sophia Grace Go, Angela Joy Marie Bermejo, and Sheine Nicole De Asis received the silver medals.

A. Diasnes Gym Taekwondo Learning Center also proved supreme in the weekend competition. Fresh from his international competition, Cindy Joy Diasnes delivered one silver medal in the Junior Female Individual Poomsae. The Central Philippine University (CPU) sentinel also teamed up with Sophia Marie Tungala and Elizabeth Marie Borres in getting the silver medal in the Junior Team Poomsae.

Borres also captured the silver medal in the Cadet Female Individual Poomsae while Tingala paired with Kean Ryth Bornazal to win the bronze medal in the Cadet Mixed Pair Poomsae.

MVP Iloilo head coach Mark Pinggol said BOB is a prestigious event conducted by the Philippine Taekwondo Association (PTA) every year to measure the skills of considered best players from different part of PTA Chapters around the country and only gold and silver in blackbelt category of different PTA National events (Kyorugi/Pooomsae) are allowed to join.

“First, I thank God. I feel so overwhelmed with the performances and the result of our Ilonggo MVP jins considering that most of them were able to go home with medals, though we worked hard during our preparation but we are having a hard time to manage our training schedules since they are student-athletes and we have so many taekwondo events this month. In addition, while MVP Elite jins are in Manila for BOB, some of our jins also competed at 2019 Visayas Cluster Meet in Bacolod last Saturday. They are Neljane Wentworth Belgira (gold in Kyorugi), Francheska Isobelle Dunton (gold in Poomsae) and Alkin Calasara (gold in Poomsae),” he shared. IMT