MIstakes come back to haunt Filipino Agojo in taekwondo loss
Filipino taekwondo exponent rues mistakes in a final he didn't expect to lose
Filipino taekwondo exponent Francis Aaron Agojo was crestfallen after losing in the final of the men's Under-58kg final at the Singapore Expo Hall 2 last night.
The 19-year-old was beaten 23-9 by 19-year-old Vietnamese Nguyen Van Duy.
The loss ended his dreams of doing better than the silver medal he earned in the Under-54kg event at the 2011 Games in Indonesia.
"I didn't expect to lose," Agojo said after the medal ceremony.
"It was my lack of recovery that was to blame - I was too slow in recovering from my opponent's attack.
"I haven't spoken to my coaches about the fight yet, but I know they will tell me that I still need to make more improvement."
STRONGER
Francis, who had beaten Singapore's Jason Tan 20-13 in the semi-final earlier yesterday to qualify for the gold medal match, vows to come back stronger.
"I will have to go through the selections again to see if I can compete in other events.
"Hopefully, I will be back to fight in the next SEA Games."
Thailand were the big winners on the night, winning gold in two of the three finals.
Chanatip Sonkham, 24, overpowered Timor Leste's Luisa Dos Santos Rosa, 22, 22-9 in the women's Under-49kg final.
She revealed her recipe for success.
"I like using high kicks because they're worth three points each. So I use them often in competitions to gain points quickly," said the Thai.
Her male compatriot, Akkarin Kitwijarn, also expected to win the gold in the men's Under-63kg final, but was surprised with his winning score of 19-3 over Myanmar's Zaw Zaw.
"I made sure I paid attention to every detail during the fight and avoided any carelessness or overconfidence," said Akkarin, 19. "I'm very happy with how I fared today."
In the last final of the day, Thailand's Phannapa Harnsujin, 17, fell 8-6 in the women's under 53kg event to Indonesia's Mariska Halinda, 21.
Singapore's Jason Tan, Nur Fadzlyn Zahruddin and Vincent Lim Hong Bin claimed bronzes in the men's Under- 58kg, women's Under-49kg and men's Under-63kg events respectively.
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