PROPPED up by his never-say-die spirit, taekwondo jin Kurt Barbosa emerged as the country’s ninth and latest athlete to gain a slot to the Tokyo Olympic Games last Saturday night.
Barbosa accomplished the feat in gripping fashion, scoring an amazing come-from-behind 50-49 triumph over hometown favorite Zaid Al-Halawani in the men’s flyweight (58-kilogram) semifinals of the Asian Taekwondo Olympic qualifying tournament in Amman, Jordan.
Trailing 44-49 with 12 ticks left, Barbosa went for broke, unleashing a furious flurry of kicks, capped by a last-second kick to the body of Al-Halawani, good for two points, to score the big win.
Except for the 2012 London Games, Filipino jins have had a representative in the quadrennial games since the sport made its medal debut in the 2000 edition in Sydney, Australia.
Barbosa, who made an impressive Southeast Asian Games maiden appearance by ruling the men’s finweight (54-kilogram) division two years ago, joyfully threw his headgear into the air with a shout while heading back to his corner after his dramatic victory.
After drawing an opening-round bye, he handily beat Mongolia’s Molomyn Tumenbayar 40-33 in the quarterfinals.
Barbosa joined the celebrated ranks of pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena, gymnast Carlos Edriel Yulo, weightlifter and Rio Olympics silver medalist Hidylin Diaz, rower Cris Nievarez and boxers Felix Eumir Marcial, Carlo Paalam, Nesthy Petecio and Irish Magno, who had earlier qualified for the Tokyo Games.
National coach Dindo Simpao said that under the Olympic qualifying competition format, Barbosa and the other winning semifinalist, Thai Ramnarong Sawekhirahee, who topped Pakistan’s Haroon Khan 32-26, have qualified without having to meet in the finals.
“We are happy for Kurt and the fighting taekwondo athletes. We are proud to have taekwondo to be one of sports we have been supporting. Congratulations to the Philippine Taekwondo Association. We are all proud of you,” Philippine Sports Commission Chairman Butch Ramirez said.
Not so fortunate were Barbosa’s national teammates and fellow Olympic aspirants Arven Alcantra, Pauline Louise Lopez and Kirstie Elaine Allora, who came up short in their respective divisions.
Alcantara, who won the SEA Games silver medal two years ago, lost in the men’s featherweight quarterfinals to Uzbek Ulugbek Rashitov 9-23.
Lopez, a 30th SEA Games gold medalist, absorbed a 10-21 beating from Lebanon’s Laetitia Aoun in the women’s featherweight (57-kg) quarterfinals after routing Syria’s Aya Al-Jarahe 22-0 in her opening round match.
Rio Olympic Games veteran Allora, who was already in the semis due to the few number of entries, was outclassed in her welterweight (+67-kg) bout 5-27 by Uzbekistan’s Svetlana Osipova, who bagged a bronze medal in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.
“Grabe yon, grabe. Hanggang ngayon nanginginig pa rin ako,” Simpao said in relief after witnessing Barbosa’s encounter live via the tournament’s YouTube account.
He observed that Al Halawani enjoyed the hometown edge in the way he piled up an early lead in the match.
“Actually Kurt was performing well, kaya lang malaki ‘yong lamang ng Jordanian. Host kasi sila, kaya I believe he was being favored,” Simpao said. “But you saw our athlete. He never gave up. He really wanted his ticket (to Tokyo).”
Barbosa trailed 11-14 and 18-25 after the first two rounds, a gap that ballooned to 18-41 with 1:14 left in the third round before the feisty Filipino mounted his valiant uphill rally that wound up with that last-gasp kick to snatch the win from the jaws of defeat.
