Igorot martial artist Jeordan Dominguez made history by winning the Philippines' first medal at the World first Taekwondo Poomsae Grand Prix in Rome, Italy when he scored 7.52 points to win the bronze medal.
Fifth seed Dominguez scored 4.5 and 3.02 well for third place behind world number 2 Lin Yu Han of Taiwan with 7.88 points for the gold medal, and third seed Dhin Khul Nguyen of Vietnam with 7.7 points to settle for second place.
"This is the first Philippine medal in the World Grand Prix," said Dominguez, who also won a bronze medal for the Poomsae team at the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia.
The Poomsae, the form component of Korean martial arts, was incorporated for the first time in the Rome Grand Prix said World Taekwondo Federation president Chungwon Choue at his invitation to all national federations including the Philippines to which Dominguez participated.
Only the top eight players in the world were invited to the tournament of which Dominguez is the fifth-ranked.
"Only those ranked 1 to 8 ng world ang mag lalaban-laban and I'm so lucky po na na-invite ako (at) nasa rank 5 po ako ngayon," Dominguez said.
Dominguez, a Cordilleran who hails from Otucan, Bauko, Mountain Province and is a resident of Baguio City, thanked the Philippine Taekwondo Association and its president Grandmaster Sung Chon Hong for allowing him to compete in the premier competition of the World Grand Prix poomsae.
The Igorot taekwondo martial artist also thanked all the people, his fellow players, for forcing him to do his best despite the "sleepless nights, pain and suffering" that resulted in the Philippines' first medal at the World Grand Prix.
