FOR only the second time since taekwondo made its Olympic debut as a medal sport in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, the country won’t have a representative in the Paris edition after all four jins fell short in the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament over the weekend in Tai’an China.
The most prominent casualty was Tokyo Olympian Kurt Ryan Barbosa, who lost 4-10, 5-13 in the men’s minus 58kg semifinals of kyorugi (sparring) to rangy Kazakh Samirkhon Ababakirov in an event where the two finalists were assured of slots to the Paris Summer Games.
Fellow Olympic hopefuls Arven Alcantara, Tachiana Mangin and Jessica Canabal were also eliminated.
Like Barbosa, Mangin got as far as the minus 49kg women’s semis before being stymied 3-3, 0-1 by Saudi Arabia’s Dunya Abutaleb while Canabal lost in the women’s 57kg semis 0-11, 5-6 to Lebanon’s Laetitia Aoun.
Alcantara was beaten in the men’s minus 68kg quarters 18-11, 3-4, 4-4 by Ali Reza Abbasi of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team.
It was the only the second time that Filipinos failed to send a representative to the taekwondo quadrennial global spectacle, the first being the 2012 London Games, in what is considered a major blow to the sport that has been a major source of pride for the country in international meets.
With the latest results, former 1988 Seoul Olympian Monsour del Rosario lamented the apparent decline in local taekwondo development, saying: “I am shocked by this outcome considering we were a powerhouse in Southeast Asia and Asia.”
