Written by: Aravind Mano (Voxsports News)
Singapore’s taekwondo athletes missed out on the final rounds of their respective events after losing their matches on Saturday afternoon.
Jason Tan, Nur Fadzlyn Zahruddin and Vincent Lim came up short in the men’s under 58kg, women’s under 49kg and men’s under 63kg semi-finals respectively.
Tan had started his bout with the Philippines’ Francis Aaron Agojo well, but suffered an injury to his left leg in the second round which greatly reduced the pace and intensity that Tan had shown in the opening stages of the bout.
Ultimately, Agojo emerged victorious on points with a final score of 20-13 after three rounds.
After his match, Tan refused to blame the injury for his loss, admitting that while he expected better, he was still proud of his efforts.
“Taekwondo is a contact sport so there are always some knocks and bruises,” Tan said.
“At that moment it was just affecting me, when sometimes I had to change legs. But I can’t use this injury as an excuse for my loss. I think I did my best so that’s most important.”
In her semi-final clash with Timor Leste’s Luisa Dos Santos Rosa, Fadzlyn did not fare any better than her national teammate as she lost 13-0 after three rounds.
A physically imposing Rosa overpowered Fadzlyn throughout the fight, and did not concede a single point to the Singaporean in the three rounds.
Rosa’s larger 1.7m physique hulked over Fadzlyn’s smaller frame but the 17-year-old pointed out that she was used to fighting taller opponents and that it was not a factor that intimidated her.
“I don’t think height matters to me because in all my other competitions, my opponents have been taller than me,” Fadzlyn explained.
“In my mind, I just thought that I had to try my best to kick her.
“I could have done better, but during the fight all I thought about was to try my best, to do whatever I could and to just go for it.”
In the under 63kg clash, Lim lost his bout with Myanmar’s Zaw after the referee stopped the contest with five seconds left of the third round. Zaw was convincingly leading 19-9 at the time.
Lim started well, and managed to win the first round 2-1. However, Zaw’s increased his aggression for the next two rounds to regain the lead and until the referee stopped the fight, was completely dominant with solid kicks to the midriff and head of Lim to take the win.
The result meant that all three athletes sealed SEA Games bronze medals but Tan was already looking ahead to tournaments in the future, saying that more work is needed to ensure future glory for himself and the team.
“I think I can do so much better, so I have to work a lot more on it and try again at the next competition,” he asserted.