Lizardo heads jins seeking national berths

MANILA, Philippines—Multititled jins Paul Lizardo, Kirstie Elaine Alora and Camille Manalo spearhead around a thousand bets vying for slots on the Philippine team in the SMART CPJ (Carlos Palanca Jr.) taekwondo championships on Feb. 5 at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

According to organizing chair, Grandmaster Sung Chon Hong, qualifiers will don the country’s colors in several sparring and poomsae competitions overseas.

Among the tournaments Hong mentioned are the 20th Asian taekwondo championships in Vietnam; the 12th World University championships in Pochean, Korea; and the World Cup competition in Sta. Cruz, Aruba.

The junior national team, on the other hand, will join the 9th WTF World junior championships in Sham El Sheikh, Egypt, and the 6th Asian junior championships in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Scheduled for the poomsae national squad are the 2012 World poomsae junior/senior championships in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and the World poomsae championships in Medelin, Columbia.

Free sparring events will be conducted in the senior, junior and grade school divisions, while Poomsae action will be divided into individual, team and mixed pair with 11 categories – grade school, junior, first senior A, first senior B, second senior B, first Master, second Master, junior pair, senior pair, first team and second team.

The PSS (protector scoring system) will be used in the event starting at 9 a.m.