By Joaquin Luis E. Quesada

Far Eastern University (FEU) Jins Mark Balcita and Yogen Ravelo bagged gold and bronze medals, respectively at the Smart/Manny V. Pangilinan Sports Foundation (MVPSF) National Capital Region (NCR) Poomsae and Speed Kicking Taekwondo Championships last February 20-22.

The said tourney was streamed live through the official Facebook page Philippine Taekwondo Association-NCR (PTA-NCR), playing the recordings of the athletes’ performance then quickly followed by the awarding of each category.

“Overall, I am proud because I secured a place for FEU in our first tournament this year,” Ravelo shared.

Balcita won the gold medal with a 7.267 commanding lead in the category, Kent Capacite of University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD) came in second with 6.967 points. It was a razor-thin fight for third place between University of Santo Tomas’ (UST) Julius Oxina and Ravelo, however, Oxina came out on top with 6.900 points.

There was a 0.1 gap between Ravelo and Michael Porras Jr. of De La Salle University (DLSU) in pursuit of fourth place. Both of them were tied with 6.833 points before the tiebreakers were applied.

“I never thought that I will bag a bronze medal because it was really a tough fight since most of our scores is magkakalapit lang (are close to one another),” Ravelo said.

Ravelo shared that there was no difference in Poomsae as they are used to perform hand techniques, kicks, and combinations. The only difference they experienced was on the scoring of the sparring, they will be judged based on the speed and difficulty of their kicks.

Due to continuous threat of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the participants recorded their performances at the comfort of their homes prior to the airing of the competition.

(File photo by Andrea Joy C. Gonzales/FEU Advocate)