RP jins second in Asian tourney

HONG KONG -- Filipino taekwondo jins closed their campaign here with flourish, shining with three silvers and one bronze in the final day and taking away the men's overall runner-up honors behind Korea Tuesday night in the Asian Taekwondo Championships.

Olympic entry Donald Geisler, Alessandro Lubiano and Camela Albino captured silver medal apiece, while Margarita Bonifacio took a bronze, helping the Philippines achieve its most successful performance in this tourney in terms of numbers of medals.

That burst of energy in the last day hiked RP's medal haul to five silvers and six bronzes. Although without a gold, the Filipinos' sheer number of medals was enough to make them second in the men's competition and fourth in the women's in this 23-nation event where the top five countries in the world saw action.

Korea came up with 13 of 16 gold medals available, with Chinese Taipei female entries taking two and a Chinese Taipei bet winning one.

"It's a very successful campaign for us, we didn't expect to garner this many medals because we also treat this as tune-up for our Olympic entries," said Philippine Taekwondo Association vice president Sung Chon Hong. "The players gave their hearts out despite the Koreans' mighty show."

Generally, the Filipinos would have a fiery performances in the initial bouts only to lose steam in front of the Koreans as what happened to Geisler and Lubiano.

Geisler, one of the favorites in the men's welterweight, however, chose to slug it out with Seon Taek Oho in an exciting match that saw the Filipino matching the Korean kick after kick. Oho led, 7-3, early in the third round and would not give the Filipino any room to get through.