The Philippine taekwondo team expects brutal and rigid training in the coming months as they eye to make an impact in three high-class tournaments starting in June.
The Filipino taekwondo jins are lined up to compete in the 2017 World Taekwondo Championships on June 22 to 30 in Muju, South Korea, followed by the annual Korea Open in July, before seeing action in the 2017 Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in August.
PH team coach Igor Mella said their main focus is to level up their fitness trainings and master the system of electronic scoring in order to have better medal chances in all three fancied tournaments.
“We want to focus our main approach on nutrition and weight management kasi it’s going to be very busy for our athletes in the middle of the year,” said Mella.
“Siyempre kailangan maingat sa training para iwas injuries,” he added.
The Philippine Taekwondo Federation is regularly evaluating its athletes during training to see who among the large pool of jins have the best medal chances in all three tournaments.
So far, Mella said they only plan to train locally particularly for the SEAG, where they aim to eclipse their three gold, three silver, and two-bronze haul at the 2015 Singapore edition.
“Our SEAG goal is to not go lower from our previous performance. We’re optimistic of our chances because our national team is healthy and intact,” Mella said.
The Malaysia SEAG will have five male and six female categories with three male and three female jins allowed to compete per country.