The Varsitarian

FIRST-BOUT jitters may have spoiled his Olympic debut three years ago.

However, the Athenian tragedy that had befuddled him and his compatriots hardly doused the fire of redemption in Thomasian jin Tshomlee Go as he secured a trip to the 2008 Beijing Olympics after placing third in the -49 kilogram division of the World Olympic Taekwondo Qualifying Games last September 28-30 in Manchester, England.

“This is a second-chance opportunity for me,” said Go. “I am going to be a more mature fighter than I was back then, and I think that will make all the difference,” he added.

The 26-year-old Go trounced Egypt’s Tamer Salah Bayoumi via superiority in his sixth and final match to bag the last qualifying slot in the 48-man knockout eliminations.

Earlier, Go plastered Yemen’s Akram Ahmed Ahmed Abdullah, 4-1, in his first match. He then got a breather when opponents Abdulrouf Mohamed Gerwash of Libya and Ahmed Kasim Kadim of Iraq did not show up due to visa problems, giving him the automatic victory via default.

Go next engaged World Cup and Asian champion Chutchawal Khawlaor of Thailand in a neck-and-neck battle which the Filipino eventually won, thanks to a pivotal sudden- death kick on Khawlaor’s torso as time expired. Prior to this encounter, Go locked horns with Denmark’s Philip Reyes, born in Copenhagen to Filipino migrants.

Go had a 4-2 lead at the start of the second round but a persistent Reyes delivered a game-tying roundhouse kick to the head as the match was nearing its end, stretching the all-Filipino duel into sudden death. The former UAAP MVP prevailed with a timely counter 45 kick that brought him a rung closer to his Beijing bid.

However, Go’s Olympic homecoming took a momentary dive in the semifinals after bowing to Athens Olympic gold medalist Mu Yen Chu of Chinese Taipei, 7-0. Chu raced to a 3-0 lead early in the match before being declared winner in the third round via the mandatory seven-point rule.

It was this loss that fueled Go to face Bayoumi with renewed vigor and intensity in the repachage round, as he aggressively showed his wares in the sudden death phase en route to an Olympic berth.

In 2004, Go narrowly lost to former world champion Juan Ramos of Spain, 3-2, in the first round of his Athens Olympic taekwondo oddyssey.

Fellow Thomasian Donald Geisler was also booted out of the competition aftert losing to Turkey’s Bahri Tanrikulu, 7-5, in the first round of the 80 kg. class and suffering an ACL injury in his repachage bout with Hicham Hamdouni of Tunisia that forced him to surrender the fight.

Another Thomasian and RP team standout Alexander Briones, however, saw his Olympic dream end as quickly as it had begun after falling to Britain’s Aaron Cook in their -80 kg tussle last September 30.

Unfazed by the jeers of the crowd supporting their local hero, Briones gamely faced the 16-year-old British sensation, determined to book the country’s second Olympic taekwondo ticket. But Cook managed to overwhelm Briones in a controversial match that ended 5-1 in favor of the Briton.

Briones, a 2006 Asian Championships silver medalist, advanced to the next round versus Cook without breaking a sweat after his first round opponent, Central Africa’s Ben Guorion Madanga, failed to get a visa.

Go and Briones were both instrumental to the Tiger Jins “four-peat” championship reign in Season 67 of the UAAP.