Tracy Honorio of University of Santo Tomas snuck a yuko against teammate Lorelei Tolentino to take the lightweight gold, Thursday, at the La Salle Greenhills St. Benilde Gym.
The two Thomasian judoka reached the gold medal bout after dominating their respective previous two opponents. Tolentino pulled past University of the Philippines rookie Charisse Aseneta in the quarterfinals. She then surprised De La Salle University second-year player Maria Baguisi with a throw for an ippon at 2:29 mark of the contest. On her part, Honorio pummelled La Salle’s Christine Valeria with 5 yuko, and then followed it up a win over Issa Raymundo of UP. Honorio and Raymundo both had one waza-ari, but the UST bet had two yuko that gave her the win.
Aseneta and Valencia redeemed themselves after winning their repechage matches over Carmela Tagle of University of the East and Anna Brunner of Ateneo de Manila University, respectively. The UP rookie went on to win the bronze over her senior Raymundo via ippon with a mere second left in the contest. In the other match, Baguisi outhustled Valencia to take the other bronze medal in an all-La Salle tussle.
In the finals, both Tolentino and Honorio tried to attack. Midway into the match, Honorio sneaked in a counter for a yuko. The yuko turned out to be the turning point for the gold medal as time expired in yet another all-UST affair.
