Ninobla, dad strike golds in European poomsae online tourney

JOCEL LYN Ninobla and her father, June, brought honor to the country amid the pandemic through Taekwondo poomsae (form), a noncontact demonstration of the sport.

Stephen Fernandez, the Philippine Taekwondo Association chairman of regional affairs, informed The Manila Times on Friday evening that the father-daughter tandem won in their respective divisions in the first Online Daedo Open European Poomsae Championships.

“This is the first, something new, an online poomsae championship. Well, honestly, despite the pandemic, we still find ways, positively, to do things [so] productively that [our athletes] still managed to give glory to the country in the time of crisis,” said Fernandez in a phone interview. “I am happy about this.”

Jocel Lyn, 23, garnered a total score of 7.565 points in the under-30 female category to pocket the gold, beating Spain’s Raquel Guillen Sanchez (7.515 points) and Iranian Mahsa Sadeghi (7.515 points), who settled for silver and bronze, respectively. Jocel Lyn posted her score on her Facebook page

Sanchez earned the second spot over her Iranian foe due to the tiebreak advantage (4.350 to 4.315) after having a similar final score.

Jocel Lyn’s father June, meanwhile, won the under-60 male individual class gold.

Fernandez said the online tournament format was brought about by the current crisis in the sports world due to the coronavirus disease. A total of 111 taekwondo competitors in the under-30 female class joined the online tournament organized by the European Tae kwon do Union.

Jocel Lyn was also a gold medalist in the women’s individual recognized poomsae in the 30th Southeast Asian Games taekwondo event last December at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila.