Watanabe, men’s poomsae team bags gold medals in SEA Games
Pomsae event gold medalists Dustin Jacob Mella, Raphael Enrico Mella and Rodolfo Reyes Jr (from left to right in the top photo) and (bottom photo).
INQUIRER.NET & CDN FILE
KUALA LUMPUR— One sport is defined by brute force. The other by grace, balance and snap. Both delivered much needed gold medals for the country Saturday in the 29th Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Kiyomi Watanabe proved that she’s a cut above the rest as she left a swath of destruction on her way to the gold medal in women’s judo while a graceful and snappy performance by the country’s men’s pomsae team in taekwondo gave the country two gold medals Saturday in the homestretch of the biennial sports meet.
The 20-year-old Watanabe won all her bouts via ippon — the equivalent of knockout in boxing — taking down Orapin Senatham in just 36 seconds for her third straight SEA Games gold in -63-kilograms division.
“It wasn’t easy,” said Watanabe through her Cebuana mom Irene who was interpreting from Japanese to Filipino. “There was pressure on my part to win. But she did her best for her country.”
This early, Watanabe is being groomed for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Watanabe was one of the four Fil-Japanese counted upon to win golds in the competition held at KLCC Hall 5.
But twins Shugen and Keisei Nakano could only produce bronze in their respective divisions.
Shugen came out of the repechage division to edge Ace Ang of Singapore, 3-0, for third place in -66kg.
His brother Keisei overpowered Uen Xaisengseum Nouvene of Laos via ippon for -73kg bronze.
Meanwhile, the Philippine trio of Dustin Jacob Mella, Raphael Enrico Mella and Rodolfo Reyes Jr., took the gold in men’s pomsae with a snappy and graceful routine.
The Philippines accumulated 8.40 points to overcome title favorite Malaysia (8.34).
Former world champion Rani Ortega hugged the three jins, whom she had mentored after the scores were flashed on the screen of the KLCC Hall 1.
It was a big relief for the Philippine taekwondo team here as Malaysian competitors were getting scores deemed too high for their performances.
“We didn’t play like we are the defending champion. We still worked on it like this was our first time,” said Dustin.
The trio won bronze in the World Championships in 2014 before bagging the 2015 SEA Games gold in Singapore.
The women’s team of Jocel Lyn Ninobla, Rinna Babanto and Juvenille Faye Crisostomo in poomsae won bronze in the event with a score of 8.27.
Vietnam ruled the event with 8.43, while Thailand was second with 8.37.
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