ATHENS - Young Mary Antoinette Rivero -- and the Philippines -- missed a shot at the Olympic gold on Saturday by bowing to Greek Elisavet Mystakidou, 3-2, in the under-68 kg semifinals of the taekwondo competition.
Taekwondo coach Jesus Morales III said the 16-year-old Rivero was more aggressive and appeared to have landed the more kicks, but the judges saw it the other way and gave the nod to the local fighter.
“’Di ko alam kung anong klase ang judging dito,” said Morales. “Maliwanag na si Toni ang may una at huling tama, pero hindi binilang.”
Philippine Taekwondo Association president Robert Aventajado expressed the same sentiment. “Pero wala tayong magagawa,” he said.
There was little action in the first and second rounds, although Mystakidou scored a point in each. Rivero mounted several attacks to level at 2-2, but the Greek gained two more points before being deducted a point for the final score.
Rivero still had a chance for the bronze, but only if she won twice more late Saturday (early Sunday in Manila).
Rivero, a rookie and the youngest among the Philippines’ 16 athletes in the Olympics, won her first two assignments earlier Saturday to make the semifinals.
The five-foot-eight, high-school junior nipped former world silver medalist Vanina Sanchez Beron of Argentina by superiority in the round of 16 after they tied at 10-10. She then crushed the Netherlands’s Charmie Sobers, 10-4, to make it to the semifinals against Mystakidou.
The third and last RP taekwondo jin, two-time Olympian Donald David Geisler III, lost by superiority to Turkey’s Balhi Tahrikulu in a fierce, closely fought match that ended at 9-9, after the Turk was penalized and deducted two points for backpedaling most of the time.
The 26-year-old Geisler, who also lost by superiority to a Swede in his first fight in Sydney four years ago, bravely fought back from 7-2 behind in the second round to level the count at 8-8 with a 45-degree kick to the head.
In her second fight, Rivero scored most of her points through effective counter hits against the slower Dutchwoman, who finished fifth in the 2001 world championships in Cheju, South Korea.
Rivero waited and struck whenever she saw an opening and did not back away after an attack. She was quick to follow up her kicks, unlike in her first bout with the Argentine veteran.
“Maganda ang pinakita ni Toni. Matapang at aggressive siya at sinunod lahat ng instruction namin,” said Morales.
Rivero was quiet after her first two wins, refusing to make any comment. But she keenly listened to coach Morales and the team’s Korean consultant, Tae Hyung Kim.
From a 2-2 tie in the first round, Rivero surged ahead to 6-2 going into the third after connecting a series of countershots, including a right kick to the body which knocked down Sobers.
The closest the Dutch got was within 6-4. After that, Rivero maintained her counter thrusts to pull away.
Against Beron, the Filipino gold medalist in last year’s Vietnam Southeast Asian Games rallied from an 8-10 deficit with a minute left to tie the count at 10-10. She clearly connected with right-foot kick at the buzzer but this did not count, paving the way for the superiority decision.
Rivero was faster and clearly dominated the match. But quite strangely, she found herself trailing the former world silver medalist most of the time.