THE spotlight wasn’t much on Kurt Bryan Barbosa when a four-jin Philippine team embarked on a campaign in the Jordanian capital of Amman over the weekend to seek qualification for the Tokyo Olympics.
But one by one beginning on Friday, the Filipino jins fell. Not on Saturday though. When the smoke of battle cleared, the proud son of Abra was one of 16 Asians to earn tickets to the Olympics.
“After I won, I still can’t believe it, I thought I was just dreaming,” the 21-year-old Barbosa said. “I am very, very happy. This is the dream of my family—for me to compete in the Olympics.”
Although Barbosa drew a bye in the first round, his journey to Tokyo wasn’t easy. He notched a close 40-33 quarterfinal win over Mongolia’s Molomyn Tumenbayar, before coming from behind to score an even closer 50-49 semifinal victory Zaid Al-Halawani of Jordan.
The other half of the men’s -58-kg class saw Thailand’s Sawekwiharee Ramnarong bearing Pakistan’s Harong Khan, 32-26, to also advance to the July 23 to August 8 Olympics.
With the organizers’ aim of determine who qualifies for Tokyo—the top two jins in each of the 16 categories for men and women—there was no need to play the final.
Barbosa became the ninth Filipino so far to qualify for the Tokyo Games and nobody else is as happy and excited as his coach Carlos Padilla.
Padilla, 38, has been coaching Barbosa since 2019, a partnership that already yielded a gold medal in the 30th Southeast Asian Games.
“He [Barbosa] entered the national team in 2019, the same year when I became a senior national coach,” Padilla said. “There’s no secret formula to the successful partnership, but trust and absolute hard work.”
The University Athletic Association of the Philippines also became a domain of the Padilla-Barbosa tandem with the National University standout winning Rookie of the Year honors in 2018
“What I started with coach Carlos [Padilla] in 2019 should be sustained up to the Olympics,” Barbosa said. “I believe I can be victorious in Tokyo.”
But to do that, Barbosa said he needs to work even harder.
“I have to upgrade and adapt, study what I need to improve on,” he said. “It’s more on the tactical approach. As long as I continue the hard work, we can do it.”
Padilla said that harder work begins on Tuesday when the team flies back to Manila.
“We already found the key to win but we still need to push ourselves hard and learn to analyze the game,” said Padilla, a bronze medalist at the Nakhon Ratchasima 2007 SEA Games and a veteran of the world championships.
The other Filipinos weren’t up to the task in Amman—Rio Olympian Kirstie Alora lost to Uzbekistan’s Svetlana Osipova, 5-27, in the semifinal of the women’s +67 kgs, 2019 SEA Games gold medakist Pauline Lopez suffered a 10-21 setback to Laetitia Aoun in the quarterfinal of the women’s 57 kgs and Arven Alcanta lost to another Uzbek, Ulugbek Rashitov, 9-23, in the men’s -68 kgs quarterfinal.
Barbosa joined boxers Eumir Felix Marcial, Irish Magno, Nesthy Petecio and Carlo Paalam, gymnast Carlos Yulo, pole vaulter EJ Obiena, rower Cris Nievarez and weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz on the team to Tokyo.
Chinese Taipei dominated the qualifier by sending four athletes to the Olympics. Uzbekistan qualified three, Jordan and Kazakhstan had two each and China, Iran, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines one apiece.