“Naisip ko ‘yung buong Pilipinas, kaya dapat manalo ako sa game na ito, kasi para sa bayan to.” For Kurt Bryan Barbosa, losing his last fight was not an option.
That’s why the world 154th-ranked Barbosa stayed focused until the last moment of his remaining bout as he landed three successive 45-degree kicks to the body of his foe in the remaining 12 seconds.
The result was a come-from-behind 50-49 triumph over hometown bet Zaid Al-Hawani in the 2021 Asian Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament at the Kempinski Hotel, Amman, Jordan on Saturday.
The win was good enough for the National University standout to clinch a berth to the Tokyo Olympic Games this July, becoming the only taekwondo jin to do so and the ninth Filipino qualifier in the quadrennial meet.
“Basta, noong nasa waiting area lang ako before semis, naka-focused talaga ako, wala ako iniisip na iba kung hindi paano siya talunin,” said the 22-year-old Barbosa in a message to the Manila Standard.
“Wala sa isip ko ‘yung talo,” added Barbosa, who found his timing in the closing seconds of his two-minute encounter in the third round of the men’s -58kg class semifinals.
Barbosa normally fights in the 54kg category and he had to plan out his fight because Al-Hawani was bigger and heavier than him.
“May mga game-plan talaga kami na gumana sa first round. Pero, na-checkmate kami, kaya nag-switch agad kami ng game-plan para kontrahin ang ginagawa ng kalaban,” added Barbosa, who became the first Filipino male jin to snare an Olympic berth in 13 years.
With his qualification, Barbosa followed in the footsteps of Tshomlee Go, who made it in the same weight class in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
A bigger Al-Hawani had the advantage, 48-43, with 24 seconds to when a penalty given to the Jordanian allowed Barbosa to make his move.
“Hindi po ako sumuko,” said Barbosa, who qualified with Thailand’s Ramnarong Sawekwiharee, a three-time gold medallist at the Southeast Asian Games in the 58kg class.
Barbosa fought in the 54kg during the SEA Games, where he is the gold medallist.
Sawekwiharee earned qualification after he disposed of Haron Khan of Pakistan, 32-26.
Both Barbosa and Sawekwiharee, however, will no longer meet in a finals’ encounter, since the two slots given away in each of the eight categories, were filled up by them.
Other Filipino jins Kirsten Alora, Arven Alcantara and Pauline Lopez did not qualify.
Alora missed what could have been her second stint to the Olympics in the -68kg after bowing to Svetlana Osipova of Uzbekistan, 5-27.
Later, Alora finished off Mokhru Khalimova of Tajikistan, 9-7, in the battle for third place.
