Ernesto Guzman Jr. showed his world-class form and returned to the top to bag the gold for male individual under-40 in the recently concluded Online staging of the 2020 World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships, Monday.
Gusman is a former world champion for under-30 male team, along with Jean Pierre Sabido and Glenn Alava seven years ago. And he showed he still has it after a huge 7.350 total to beat the seven other finalists, including South Korean Ji Ho-Yong.
With the right combination of power and flair, Guzman got the judges well with a huge 7.38 in Taegeuk 8 after a good 3.22 score in accuracy.
Guzman then followed it up with an equally impressive 7.32 in Taebaek, bringing his total to 7.350, way above the other competitors with Ji left to perform.
Ji ended up with the silver with 7.290, the only other score breaking the 7.100 mark. The bronzes went the way of Iran’s Hamid Nazari and Chinese Taipei’s Lu Cheng-en with 7.090 and 7.050, respectively.
University of Santo Tomas product Jocel Ninobla added a bronze after a 7.280 total in the female individual Under-30 division.
The 2019 Southeast Asian Games champion impressed early with her balance in executing Keumgang and got a 7.30 from the judges, before following it up with a powerful performance in Pyongwon to get 7.26 for a total said total.
Kim Jisu of South Korea bagged the title with 7.350, while Elif Aybuke Yilmaz of Turkey took home the silver just 0.200 points ahead of the younger Ninobla at 7.300. Denmark’s Eva Sandersen got the other bronze with 7.210.
Not to be outdone, Jocel’s father, June Ninobla also bagged a bronze, this time for the male individual Under-60 division. The elder Ninobla walked away with a final score 7.150 with a 7.16 in Taebaek and 7.14 in Shipjin.
South Korean Um Jaeyoung topped the competition with 7.270 for the gold, with Turkey’s Mustafa Yilmaz not far behind with 7.240. American Lee Eun Ig pocketed the other bronze with 7.060.
