EIGHT hours a day of training for almost two months paid handsome dividends for the Philippines’ Jeordan Dominguez yesterday.
The 25-year-old from Baguio City delivered a compelling routine to rule the men’s individual freestyle event of the 4th Asian Taekwondo Poomsae Championships at the Marriott Grand Ballroom in Pasay City.
Going solo for the first time, Dominguez impressed the judges who rewarded him with 7.72 points for the gripping performance.
Thailand’s Sakdu-nin Konggapun settled for the silver with 7.50 points.
Juvenile Faye Crisostomo later duplicated Do-minguez’s golden feat in women’s individual free-style. Crisostomo scored 7.28 to beat Pich Chapha Tanakitcharoenpat (7.12) of Thailand and Thi Mong Nguyen of Vietnam (6.90).
“I was a bit nervous because before this, I had never competed on my own,” said Dom-inguez, a taekwondo instructor from University of Baguio.
“This is my first Asian title and it’s a great feeling.”
Dominguez shared the silver in the freestyle team event at the Asian championship two years ago in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and was part of the gold-winning PH team in the 2014 world championships in Mexico. He also won a silver in the pairs event of the previous world championships.
The Philippines also grabbed the gold in team poomsae for the over-30 years class courtesy of Jean Pierre Sabido, Ernesto Guzman Jr. and Glenn Lava.
Southeast Asian Games champions Dustin Mella, Rodolfo Reyes Jr. and Enrico Mella placed second in the men’s team U-30 while Jocel Lyn Ninobla, Clare Therese Gascon and Angelica Jyce Gaw also settled for the silver in the women’s U-30.
Earlier, Rodolfo Reyes Jr. settled for the silver medal in the individual men’s poomsae U-30 after scoring 7.84 points. Ninobla pocketed a bronze in the individual women’s U-30 won by Korean So Hee-kang.
Chang Hyun Oh of South Korea defeated Reyes with 7.93.
Kirstie Elaine Alora, who secured a spot in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics during the recent qualifier at the same venue, will see action in the women’s -73 kg of the Asian championship while Pauline Lopez will vie in the -57 kg after missing the cut for the Games.