By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The Iloilo Mark V. Pinggol (MVP) taekwondo gym again turned heads in another national competition on September 7, 2028, held at the Ayala Malls Bay in Manila.
Fresh off a scintillating outing in Seoul, South Korea, the Iloilo MVP jins picked up where they left off and made waves during the 2024 National Taekwondo Best of the Best Championships.
This tournament is only exclusive to players who recently bagged gold, silver, and bronze medals in any Philippine Taekwondo Association (PTA) sanctioned events, particularly at the national level.
After the two-day competition, the Mark V. Pinggol-mentored athletes took home a total of eight medals, three silvers in the kyorugi category, three silvers in the team cadet poomsae, and a pair of bronze medals in the mixed event.
Delivering the silver medals in the kyorugi event are Sophia Marie Bautista, Adenny Lourl Rivera, and Juliene Graciela Gulmatico.
Bautista is a current student of the Ateneo de Iloilo while Rivera and Gulmatico are from Dumangas Central Elementary and St. Robert’s International Academy, respectively.
Meanwhile, in the team cadet poomsae event, the trio of Arvin Kirk Derayunan, Phil Caleb Regalado, and Sirhc Einreb Damaolao did enough to hand the Iloilo MVP gym the silvers.
Derayunan is a proud student of the St. ACTS School in Dumangas, Regalado from the University of the Philippines Visayas High School, and Damaolao from the West Visayas State University.
In the last category, the duo of Jenella Ashley Tionko and Nathan Lee Dedal beat the buzzer in the mixed pair event to claim bronze.
Tionko is taking up her studies at the University of San Agustin while Dedal is from the St. ACTS School in Dumangas.
“We are proud to represent Iloilo and honor our community as our jins faced National Team members and high-caliber athletes from across the country,” said Mr. Pinggol in an exclusive interview with the Daily Guardian.
