Youth prevailed over experience as taekwondo jins Kirstie Elaine Alora and Samuel Morrison lost to their young and aggressive Iranian rivals at the close of the Taekwondo competitions on Thursday in the 19th Asian Games.
Alora, a gold medal winner in the tough Korean Open last month, suffered a 2-0 defeat in her Round-of-16 match against 20-year-old Anahita Tavakoli in the women’s +67-kilogram division.
It’s a somber farewell for the 33-year-old Alora, who is planning to retire this year.
The same fate befell Morrison, who also endured a 2-0 loss at the hands of the 6-foot-6 Arian Salimi in the Round-of-16 of the +80kg class. Salimi effectively utilized his height advantage to score cleanly against the 30-year-old 6-foot Morrison.
Taekwondo had earlier produced the country’s first medal, courtesy of King Patrick Perez in the men’s individual poomsae on Sunday. However, following Perez’s victory, the Taekwondo practitioners fell like dominoes.
In the 2018 edition in Palembang, Indonesia, Philippine Taekwondo practitioners secured 3 bronze medals, including two poomsae team events.
