Alora falls short of medal in world taekwondo meet

The Philippines’ Kirstie Elaine Alora joined her teammates in the exit after crashing out of the medal round in the 2009 World Taekwondo Championships at the Ballerup Super Arena in Copenhagen, Denmark. A silver medalist in the 2009 Asian Martial Arts Games in Bangkok, Alora bowed to Korean Lee In-jong, 0-7, in the quarterfinal round of the women’s under 73 kg division, falling a win short of winning at least a bronze medal. On her way to the Last 8, Alora beat Mariama Barry of Guinea via disqualification before scoring a 7-4 win over Feruza Yergeshova of Kazakhstan in the second round. Also failing to move forward was John Paul Lizardo, who yielded a 3-4 setback to Moussa Cisse of France in the third round of the men’s under 54 kg. class. Lizardo earlier won over Julio Flores Lopez of Guatemala, 4-3, and Ihar Leanovich of Belarus, 7-4, but just like Alora, hit a snag as the competitions went deeper. Criselda Roxas seeks to salvage some pride in the Philippines’ final day of participation in the world championships when she sees action in the women’s under-62 kg. hostilities. Roxas is set to face Venera Abdurazakova of Uzbekistan in the first round. Roxas is the last Filipino standing after the losses of Alora and Lizardo and the early exits of Olympian Tshomlee Go and Toni Rivero, Jeffrey Figueroa, Marlon Avenido, Nicole Mapilisan, Alexander Briones, Jyra Lizardo, Eunice Alora and Karla Alava. - GMANews.TV