THE Philippine taekwondo team will be banking on the support of fellow Filipinos when it plunges into action in the Asian Taekwondo Championship Qualifier on April 16 and 17 at the Marriot Grand Ballroom Convention Center.
The kickfest is a qualifying tournament for the Rio De Janeiro Olympic Games in August this year.
“I hope Filipino fans and enthusiasts will be there to really cheer the team. That’s one thing we couldn’t have when we’re outside the country competing,” said taekwondo national coach Igor Mella as he appeared with the Filipino jins in the weekly Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum at Shakey’s restaurant in Malate to talk about the biggest event in local taekwondo this year.
Crowd support, according to Mella, will be a key factor when the PH taekwondo hopefuls shoot for berths in the Rio games.
“We didn’t have the benefit of crowd support when competing overseas,” said Mella in the public sports program presented by San Miguel Corporation, Accel, Shakey’s and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation.
“The national team indeed needs all the advantages it can get especially with countries now only allowed to send two male and two female athletes since the Olympics merged the different weight categories in taekwondo,” said Mella, who added they are still trying to determine the composition of the team that will play in the qualifier.
“We’ve not decided yet. We’re still finalizing and choosing from our hopefuls,” said Mella, adding the final submission of roster is set at the end of March.
Only gold and silver medalists in the qualifier will earn berths to the Rio Games set this August.
“So that means not even a semifinal stint is a guarantee of going to the Olympics. You really have to reach the finals and be assured a silver para maka-Olympics ka,” said competition manager Raul Samson.
Samson said the Philippine Taekwondo Association has six athletes undergoing rigid training in the hopes of representing the country in next month’s qualifier, including multi-titled Pauline Lopez, who accompanied Mella and Samson in the weekly sports forum.
A gold-medal winner in the 28th Southeast Asian Games in Singapore last year and the Asian Youth Games in 2013, Lopez said she arrived in the country from the US last January and has been training for the qualifier three times a day.
“It’s been rigid, it’s been tough,” Lopez said.
Samson said there are already countries which earned berths to Rio, such as Korea, China, Chinese Taipei, Iran, and those from Central Asia, which meant they will no longer send entries in the Manila qualifier.
“But we’re still expecting players from Southeast Asia, Thailand, and Central Asia,” Samson said.
The Olympic qualifier is the highlight tournament of the five-day taekwondo event the country is hosting from April 16 to 20.
On April 18, the Asian Taekwondo Poomsae Championship and Asian Taekwondo Para Open Championship will also be hosted by the Philippines, followed by the 22nd edition of the Asian Taekwondo Championship set April 19 and 20.