KURT BARBOSA competed on thin ice in Amman on Saturday night but nevertheless snatched a ticket to the Tokyo Olympics with a slim 50-49 win over hometown bet Zaid Al-Halawani in the Asian Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament.
Barbosa was the last man standing in the four-jin Team Philippines in the Jordanian capital and put up a gallant stand the gold medalist in the 2019 Southeast Asian did at the main mat of the competition staged at the Kempinski Hotel.
The 21-year-old fighting out of National University trailed immensely, 26-41, after the third round, but turned the table around with a flurry of kicks complimented by a penalty slapped on his opponent to grab a berth in the men’s 58-kg class of the Tokyo Games that start in two months from July 23 to August 8.
Barbosa joined the growing list of Filipino Olympic qualifiers who are now pegged at nine. The other qualifiers are 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.
The other Filipino jins were not as fortunate as Barbosa.
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.
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