NAGOYA Asian Games silver medalists Kurt Barbosa and Tachiana Mangin lead a six-athlete team that will see action in taekwondo’s kyorugi events in the Sixth Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (AIMAG) set December 11 to 21 in Riyadh, Saudia, Arabia.
Joining the Paris 2024 Olympian Barbosa (men -54 kgs) and former Asian junior champion Mangin (women -51 kgs) are Angelous Lustado (-60 kgs) and Aljen Anyaga (-67 kgs) in the men’s division and Clarence Sarza (-46 kgs) and veteran campaigner Baby Jessica Canabal (-57 kgs) in the women’s class.
The composition of the poomsae team, Philippine Taekwondo Association secretary-general Rocky Samson said, will be announced later.
‘This is going to be the same level and intensity with the last Asian Games. We must prepare seriously,’ Samson said. ‘So after our recent evaluation, the same athletes will represent us in AIMAG.’
The Virtual Mixed Taekwondo event where Jesus Gabriel Derick Yape won a gold medal for the Philippines in Nagoya, is not in the Riyadh program.
Samson said that the AIMAG is an integral part of PTA’s qualification campaign for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
‘We can gauge our athletes in AIMAG if they can compete in next year’s Olympic qualification,’ he said.
There will be eight kyorugi events at the LA 2028 Olympics–58, -68, -80 and +80 kgs in men and -49, -57, -67, and +67 kgs in women.