Baguio’s taekwondo pride Justin Kobe Macario and his pair, Juvenile Crisostomo, helped power the Philippine Taekwondo national team to a strong finish in the Goyang 2022 World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in Korea on April 21 to 24.
Macario and Crisostomo clinched a silver medal in the over 17 years old category of freestyle pair, as they looked impressive with their perfectly executed poomsae moves.
It was a great performance for Macario and Crisostomo ahead of the 2022 Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, Vietnam, as they were picked as members of the national poomsae team.
Veteran international campaigner Ernesto Guzman, Jr. was the lone gold medalist from the team after he topped the male under-50 category.
The pair of Ian Corton and Nicole Labyane also won for the country a silver medal in the under-17 category.
Rodolfo Reyes, Jr. clinched bronze medal in the male under-30 while Darius Venerable also snatched another bronze in the freestyle male over-17 category.
Earlier, Macario has joined the elite ranks of world-class Filipino TKD poomsae athletes.
Macario ranked third in the March 2022 World Freestyle Poomsae ranking for male over 17 years old with 38.27 points trailing Andreas Bregnballe Sorensen of Denmark with 56.32 points and Namhoon Lee of Korea with 60 points.
Macario is a product of Baguio City National High School who was recruited by the National University to form part of its multi-awarded team before he was again offered better scholarship package by the University of Sto. Tomas.
Also, 2020 Olympian Kurt Barbosa of Bangued, Abra will lead the Philippine kyorugi team while Baguio’s own Jeordan Dominguez will compete in poomsae in the 2022 SEA Games. – Harley Palangchao
