University of Santo Tomas regained the UAAP women’s taekwondo throne after nine years, completing a 6-0 sweep of the Season 85 competition, Thursday at the Blue Eagle Gym.
The Female Tiger Jins completed their dominant run with a rousing 6-1 win over the previous four-peat champion National University.
“We’re overjoyed, especially after the pandemic. As you know, lahat naman ng teams naghanda, Pero yung team kasi namin — even during the pandemic –kahit na online yung setting, kahit hindi namin gusto yung online, we’re still training during that time,” UST coach Gershon Bautista said.
UST bucked a match loss to take the women’s title after Realis Tabiando (5-0) took down Jubilee Briones (3-2), 2-0 (2-1, 3-2) in the featherweight (under-62 kg) match.
National team stalwart Veronica Garces (5-0) pulled one back for the Lady Bulldogs in the flyweight (under-46 kg) match against Angelica Valdez (3-2) in two rounds, 3-3, 5-3, but it was the last time the former champions took a match over the Tiger Jins.
31st Southeast Asian Games bronze medalist Laila Delo (5-0) captured both the middle/heavyweight gold (over-67 kg) and the MVP plum, while teammate Reign Ragutana won both the welterweight (under-67 kg) title and the best rookie award.
DLSU finished third after ending with a 3-2 record, ending the season with a 6-1 rout of Far Eastern University.
UST garnered five golds with Delo (5-0) and Ragutana (5-0) leading the way.
Jasmine Ramirez (4-1) took the finweight (under-46 kg) title, Mary Limjoco (4-1) bagged the bantamweight (under-53 kg) crown, and Tabiando won the lightweight (under-62 kg) gold to put UST on top in terms of medals.
Joining Delo as medalists in the middle/heavyweight are DLSU’s Allyah Eusalan (4-1) and NU’s Micha Villarama (3-2) and with Ragutana in the welterweight are NU’s Nicole Anne Mc Cann (4-1) and DLSU’s Argie Lamasan (3-2).
The finweight podium also had NU’s Clarence Sarza (4-1) and Ateneo’s Eirenne Lumasang (3-2), while DLSU’s Purcia Ang (3-2) and NU’s Abigail Abing (3-2) completed the bantamweight winners.
Florence Chavez (5-0) of UP won the featherweight (under-57 kg) class ahead of UST’s Laizel Abucay (4-1) and NU’s Via Trocio (3-2), while Garces took the other gold and paced the flyweight (under-49 kg) class with Valdez and DLSU’s Jade Papa (3-2).
