PLDT Home Bro jins cart 3 golds in World Poomsae

MANILA, Philippines - The PLDT Home Bro taekwondo poomsae national team made waves in Aguacalientes, Mexico recently by winning three gold, two silver and three bronze medals in the World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships.

It was a successful campaign for the Filipinos, who finished fifth overall in a field of 50 countries.

Jean Pierre Sabido sparked the Filipinos’ performance by bagging the gold in the freestyle individual male competition.  Then he joined Ernesto Guzman Jr. and Glenn Lava to take the gold medal in the recognized poomsae event for athletes over 30 years old.

The third gold came from the over 17 years old freestyle mixed team of Rani Ann Ortega, Ma. Carla Janice Lagman, Glenn Lava, Jeordan Dominguez and Jaylord Seridon.

Guzman also won a silver medal in recognized poomsae (under 40), while Dominguez and Jocel Lyn Ninobla got the other Philippine silver in the over-17 freestyle mixed pair event.

The bronze medal winners were Dustin Jacob Mella, Raphael Enrico Mella and Rodolfo Reyes Jr. in  recognized poomsae team (under 30) and Rinna Babanto in recognized poomsae individual female (under 17) and freestyle poomsae individual female (under 17).

“Our poomsae athletes did very well.  My fellow officials and the taekwondo community are proud of them.  They deserve to win because they trained long and hard for the competition,” said Philippine Taekwondo Association’s OIC, Sung Chon Hong.

The team’s participation in the Mexico event was supported by SMART Communications Inc., MVP Sports Foundation, PLDT, TV5, Meralco and Philippine Sports Commission.