WITH their failure to enter the medal rounds, Thomasian jins hardly made a dent in the New Face of the Year Taekwondo Championships last May 11 at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
Despite the presence of Ann Resurreccion and Christine de Leon, who both saw action in the past UAAP tournament, the six-man UST squad fell one by one early.
The only one who came close to a podium finish was finweight Fatima Balajadia, who yielded a 1-4 decision to Amoranto’s Victorina Lizardo in the women’s senior novice quarterfinals. Balajadia was completely outclassed in the bronze medal fight, allowing a 1-3 deficit in the match’s second round.
Earlier, Balajadia eked out a 1-0 squeaker against Janice Destura of Muntinlupa.
Flyweight Joseph Santillan also came up short in his bid. Failing to capitalize on a default victory in his first match, Santillan lost 2-3 opposite Bernie Mojica of Far Eastern University (FEU).
After ending the first round with a deficit, Santillan came up short in his attempt to rally, managing just a 2-2 tie in the deciding round.
Resurreccion appeared to be on her way into the medal rounds after an impressive 2-2 superiority decision in her tournament opener against Holy Name University’s Rosa Sarabosing. Ironically, the lanky finweight had the tables turned on her next match, losing on a 0-0 count opposite Ruth Mandal of Angeles, again via superiority.
De Leon, another finweight, advanced into the second round via default over Nueva Ecija’s Mylene Eugenio. However, de Leon botched her next assignment, suffering an injury en route to 2-5 drubbing in the hands of Letran College’s Sarah Joy Arellano.
Flyweight Marian Gutierrez and bantamweight Jim Good both lost their tournament openers. Gutierrez put up a strong stand against Myra Oliveros of Powerflex Gym, but still fell on a 3-3 tally via superiority. Good likewise came close, yielding a 2-2 superiority loss.
