No less than gold
McAvynger Alob feels pressure in WTF World Poomsae Championship debut but targets to win
COMPETING in the biggest stage of a sport is always the hardest. The best of the best face off against each other, and the pressure on an athlete is always high especially for a first-timer like McAvynger Alob.
However, his father, Avenger Alob, believes that he and his team have a huge probability of winning a gold in the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) World Poomsae Championships 2016 because of the hard work that they have put into training under former poomsae world champion and current Philippine trainer Hochul Ji.
“Although powerhouse teams are competing, they have a big chance of winning the gold especially because the one who trained them is a Korean world champion in freestyle,” Avenger told Sun.Star Cebu.
McAvynger spent eight hours each day, from 4 p.m. to 12 a.m., in training camp for the event since mid-August.
McAvynger is competing in the Team Freestyle event in the grandest poomsae meet on Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 in Lima, Peru.
The current De La Salle University (DLSU) varsity player is teamed up with Far Eastern University’s Renz Thomas Balcita and Juvenile Crisostomo, University of Sto. Tomas’ Nitoy Dalida and University of the Philippines’ Nikki Oliva.
Team chemistry won’t be a problem for McAvynger and his teammates because he has teamed up with three of the four previously.
McAvynger, Balcita and Dalida won a gold together in this year’s World Hanmadang, while he also paired up with Oliva to win a silver medal in the 2014 edition of the World Hanmadang.
Another DLSU varsity and also a product of Cebu, Rinna Babanto, is also seeing action in the event.
Babanto, a former world champion, is competing in two events - the Team Under-30 Authorized/Standard and Pair events.
She is teams up with Jocel Ninobla and Angelica Joyce Gaw in the team event and Dustin Mella in the pair event.