By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
One of the most prized jins of the Iloilo Mark V. Pinggol (MVP) gym impressed on the international stage after clinching second place during the 3rd Lents Taekwondo Worldwide Sports Online Poomsae Open 2021.
Cyd Edryc Esmaña, the only representative of the Philippines in the competition, dazzled the international taekwondo scene after taking second place against the best black belters of the world with a score of 7.430 behind Sunghyun Eric Gun of USA.
What made Esmaña’s second-place finish even sweeter was that it was dubbed as “The clash of the Champions” where all gold medalists were asked to compete once again for the undisputed Lents championship.
From the U-11 up to the black belters from the Master’s division, Esmaña outlasted them all despite his young age.
Aside from Esmaña, the Iloilo MVP gym also had three other jins who hauled medals in the Beach Poomsae category of the competition.
Crisgel Castro won the gold medal in the Cadet Male Blackbelt, Joshua Cachero settling for the silver medal in the U-30 Male Blackbelt, and Niesha Kariz Pequierda bronze in the Cadet Female Blackbelt category.
