National team members Brix Darmo Ramos and Daphne Alindogan dominated their respective events to lead the cast of winners in the recent 2010 Smart MVP Best of the Best taekwondo championships at the Music Hall of the Mall of Asia.
Ramos of Team Sports beat Jaime Alejandro Pablo of Delta for the gold in the senior men under 72 kg class.
Alindogan, a former junior standout representing the Negros Taekwondo Union Tigers, meanwhile, defeated University of the Philippines’ Theresa Serana to win the gold in the senior women under 56 kg division.
Both Ramos and Alindogan also emerged Best Players in their respective categories during the one-day meet organized by the Philippine Taekwondo Association (PTA) and supported by Smart Communications Inc. and PLDT.
No less than Smart Communications and PLDT chairman Manny Pangilinan graced the colorful opening ceremonies in the company of PTA vice presidents Sung Chong Hong and Danilo Mojica II, who also acted as organizing committee chairman.
Rani Ann Ortega, a member of the RP team that won the gold medal in last year’s World Poomsae Championships in Cairo, Egypt, hosted the affair. Aside from Ramos and Alindogan, other senior gold medal winners included Julius Cinco (under 58 kg), Romelle Roa (under 65 kg) and Dennis Resaba (under 72 kg) in the men’s class, and Pauline Reyes (under 49 kg), Charlene Casia (under 63 kg) and Sheena Perlas (over 63 kg) in the distaff side.
The rest of the winners are:
Grade school boys – Vladimier Garcia (10 yrs old), Luigi Paolo Wong (11 yrs old), Monsour Carlo Salazar (12 yrs old), Lennard Sam Perez (12 yrs old), John Gervin Astiologio (13 yrs old) and Seth Jaino Macaraig (13 yrs old). Wong was adjudged Best Player.
Grade school girls – Clarisse Ann Laid (10 yrs old), Alexa Rabiro (11 yrs old),
Irene Bermejo (12 yrs old), Dinella Joy Sobrevinas (12 yrs old), Brightly Rio
Salazar (13 yrs old), Suzzane Caslangen (13 yrs old). Rabino emerged Best Player in the group.
Junior men – John Paul Tomarese (under 48 kg), Kevin Sia (under 53 kg), Paolo Cipriano (under 58 kg), Josafat Licayan (under 63 kg) and Jose Manuel Alejandro (over 63 kg). Licayan was named Best Player.
Junior women – Pauline Louise Lopez (under 44 kg), Genna Mae Gadit (under 49 kg), Apriel Mae Solimen (under 54 kg), Ynah Langit (under 59 kg), Paolo Karolina Amon (over 59 kg). Best Player in the group was Lopez.
Daily Tribune
Blog
The Tenet of Courtesy
by Sung Chon Hong
August 20, 2009
9th Dan Black Belt Grandmaster
Executive Vice-President of the Philippine Taekwondo Association (PTA)
Courtesy is a word or action to one's neighbor that is marked by respect.
Our Taekwondo education inculcates this tenet through the rituals that we have like the bowing to our instructor and to our seniors. This includes our shaking hands as a sign of sportsmanship to our opponent before and after the match whether we win or lose.
All of us stand from a certain position that entails a responsibility whether we are a white belt, a black belt, a senior or a junior, a parent or a child, a referee, a grandmaster. This position requires a specific manner of action or proper words like "opo", which is said by a child to an elder when responding.
This tenet is simple but hard to do. It is saying thank you when a given a gift. This is the essence of gratefulness for all the blessings that have been bestowed on us.
This tenet, if embodied in daily life by a Taekwondo practitioner, will demonstrate the depth of his learning of the martial art.
After all, Taekwondo is more than just the 45 kick.
Courtesy is about being a genuine Taekwondo jin working within the order of society.
Without courtesy, there is disorder.
This is an important virtue that we must live out deeply.
