MANAMA, Bahrain - The Philippine taekwondo youth team is getting first-hand training from world-class Filipino jins.
Former athletes Rani Ann Lagman Ortega, Jeordan Dominguez, Paul Romero, and Kirstie Elaine Alora have all made the transition into coaching and are now calling the shots for the national team seeing action in the 3rd Asian Youth Games.
All four competed in the World Taekwondo Championships during their respective careers with the national team.
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Of course, Alora, 35, distinguished herself as an Olympian for representing the country in the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Games.
Lagman, 38, for her part, was one-third of the charming Philippine trio which bagged the gold in the World Poomsae Championship in Cairo, Egypt in 2009 together with Camiller Alarilla and Janice Lagman.
Now they’re trying to pass on the torch to the next generation of Filipino jins who they hope would become Olympians and world champions in the future.
Lagman admitted tons of patience are needed since they’re dealing with young athletes, but said everything are worth it especially when they see the fruits of their labor the way the poomsae team delivered.
“It exceeded our expectations. We’re very much satisfied with the performance of everybody,” said Lagman as the one-day poomsae competition ended Thursday at Hall 2 of the Exhibition World Bahrain.
Kristen Aguila and Aeden Cereno provided a silver (girls’ individual recognized poomsae) and bronze (boys individual freestyle poomsae) for the Philippines as poomsae made its debut in the Asian Youth Games.
“Masaya kami sa nagging performance ng team. We trained together. They (juniors) trained with the seniors also, so yung bonding nila family na. So it helped them naman,” said Dominguez, a bronze medal winner in poomsae during the 2019 World Taekwondo Poomsae Grand Prix in Rome.
Together with World Taekwondo Championship veteran Paul Romero, Allora is also having the same success with the Filipino junior jins.
“Nag retire ako 2023 (Asian Games). So 2024 after SEA Games ako nagsimula. I’m currently coaching for two years na,” she said.
The Filipina Olympian noted having produced a gold medal during the recent Asian Cadet Championships in Dondy Santillan, while winning medals of various colors in other tournaments around the Asian region.
“Unfortunately, underage pa siya for this tournament (AYG),” said Alora.
Nonetheless, Alora said the record speaks for herself.
“I think yung pagiging coach ko somehow nagiging successful naman,” said the Filipina Olympian.
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