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VETERAN Mary Antoinette Rivero showed her readiness for the Beijing
Olympics by bagging a silver in the just-concluded 18th Asian Tae
Kwon Do Championships in Zhengzhou, China.
Rivero, who saw action in the 2004 Athens
Olympics, bowed to China’s Guo Yuntel 1-2 in the finals after
hurdling Kazakhstan’s Nurkina Llya and Iraq’s Sali Salam
Mohammed in her first two fights in the tournament where the
Philippines finished fifth overall.
Fighting in the featherweight division, the
youthful jin outclassed Nurkina, 6-1, then won by disqualification
over Mohammed.
“Toni’s silver-medal performance means
we’re on the right track in our bid to win the first-ever Olympic
gold for the country,” said Philippine Tae Kwon Do President
Robert Aventajado and delegation head Sung Hong Chon.
The other Filipino Olympic qualifier, bantam
Tshomlee Go, failed to make it past the quarterfinals, losing to an
Iranian after scoring a 5-3 victory over Afghanistan rival in his
first match.
But four other Filipinos—fins John Paul
Lizardo and Jyra Marie Lizardo, fly Lorraine Lorelie Catalan and
middleweight Alexander Briones —snatched a bronze medal each.
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