After his brother Alfred’s gold medal finish at the Half-middleweight division, Ateneo’s Jaq Querubin copped the UAAP Season 78 Men’s Judo Half-heavyweight crown as he bested seven other judokas in the stacked division.
With last season’s Half-heavyweight champion, UP’s Christian Bautista, graduating, Season 77 silver medalist and National Team member Joaquin Miciano was heavily-favored to win the crown. In the opening round, Miciano bested La Salle’s Jose Antonio Suarez to open the competition. Ateneo’s Carlo Agustin was able to grind out a win against UP’s Luis Benigno Agustin in the golden round for the right to face Bautista in the semifinals.
In the other bracket, Jaq Querubin needed just 28 seconds to score an ippon on La Salle’s Guian Deistro to advance. UST rookie Jerick Senales then outpointed UP’s Pierre Bangui in the other match to advance as well.
Miciano and Carlo Agustin figured in a scrap in the first semifinals contest. Miciano, after being awarded a shido early in the match, was penalized with another shido just a second to go to send the match into the golden round. The Thomasian was able to escape Agustin in the golden round to advance to the finals.
In contrast to the other semifinals match, Querubin and Senales had a high-impact contest. After being penalized with a shido in the first minute, Querubin was able to score a yuko in the 3:50 mark of the contest. Senales was able to make it up later on, scoring a yuko of his own. But with 2:05 left on the clock, the Atenean notched another yuko that was enough to punch his ticket to the finals.
In the bronze medal matches, Luis Agustin was able to bag the first bronze medal in outpointed Thomasian Senales with a wazari. Ateneo Carlo’s Agustin then bagged the second bronze in besting Pierre Bangui.
With Miciano just a match away from finally securing gold, Querubin was the only roadblock left in his checklist. However, the younger Atenean judoka scored a yuko and a wazari in the first few minutes of the match. Miciano was able to score a wazari when he countered Querubin’s attempts. With a few minutes left in the match, Miciano attempted to secure the ippon by throwing Querubin with a shoulder throw, the latter managed to block the technique and pin Miciano to win the match.
