The three “beauty-queen material” cousins handed the Philippines first Gold Medal in the 25th SEA Games held at Vientiane, Laos right at the opening day of action. The good-looking trio of Janice Lagman, Rani Ann Ortega and Camille Alarilla are cousins who also won the World Poomsae Championship in Cairo, Egypt.

Poomsae, is a team event of a new taekwondo discipline. The competition that requires participants to demonstrate choreographed forms, this new team is making its debut in the Games, staking five gold medals.

Displaying their world-class, synchronized Lagman, Ortega and Alarilla impressed the board of judges in submitting a total 16.97 points out of a perfect 20 to beat their Thai counterparts for the gold medal.

“We are so blessed that we achieved all our goals. First, we won the world championship now, the SEA Games. I guess we have made history,” a jubilant Lagman said before climbing the victory podium. In winning the world crown two weeks ago IN Cairo, Egypt, the Filipina trio’s skills and grace bested entries from 56 countries.

On the other hand, two critical mistakes by the Philippines’ men’s team in the second routine allowed Vietnam to run away with the gold. Vietnam had actually opened the door for the Filipino trio of Anthony Matias, Brian Sabido and Jean Sabido, scoring merely 8.2 in its second routine after a solid 8.73 in the first.

Sabido, who will turn 20 today, however, lost his balance on one foot twice which reduced RP’s score to 8.30 after a strong start of 8.44. The trio eventually finished third while Laos grabbed the silver with a 16.80 (8.50, 8.30).

Photo Credit: Manila Bulletin

Tags: 25th sea games, Poomsae, Poomsae gold medalist

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 8:13 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.