“The purposes [of this tournament] are to unite the varsity team and the young bloods, to harness each other’s skills, and to establish a sense of belongingness as one team,” DLSU Judokas Head Coach Sam Bernales explained.
In 2001, the DLSU Judo Team had only 15 members with only one female Judoka.
Eleven years after on January 28, nearly a hundred Lasallian Judo practitioners gathered at the 9th floor of the Enrique Razon Sports Complex for the 2012 Inter-La Salle Judo Tournament.
“I am happy to see that the very small [Judo] team before, grew and will continue growing as one big family. I always say this, ‘we are not just a team here, we’re family,’” Coach Bernales added.
The resident DLSU Judokas were joined by sister-schools De La Salle Santiago-Zobel (DLSZ), La Salle Green Hills (LSGH) Judo clubs, and the newly-formed pacts spearheaded by Coach Bernales and team-captain-turned-coach Gerard Teruel within the last three years.
“It was actually the first time that our Juniors (LSGH and Zobel) joined in our tournament making it an Inter-La Salle competition. Before it was an inter-college because we were only grouped by our colleges,” Green Judokas Team Captain Keith Ver shared.
The Judoka assembly was divided into five via their respective colleges and schools namely College of Liberal Arts, College of Business and School of Economics (COB/SOE), CCCC composed of the College of Engineering (COE), College of Computer Studies (CCS), College of Education (CED) and College of Science (COS), DLSZ and LSGH.
Despite the advantage of the experienced mainstays, the outnumbered neophytes competed fairly in their respective weight divisions.
Defending champion CLA team, with the most number of Judokas, successfully retained top spot with 70 points. Team CBE, meanwhile, got the 2nd place behind the 38-point lead of the defending champions. 3rd placer was team CCCC with 24 points, while DLSZ and LSGH got the 4th and 5th spot with 16 and 14 points, respectively.
In both men’s and women’s divisions, gold medallists were Nikki More (CCCC, -63 kg.), Kristine Espinas (CLA, +63 kg.), Armand Evangelista (CCCC, -55 kg.), Mikhail Bagamasbad (CLA, -60 kg.), Wei Pong Zheng (CLA, -73 kg.), Ivan Oleta (DLSZ, -81 kg.), Jobi Yan (CBE, -90 kg.), and William Chia (CBE, +100 kg.).
Bagging the silver medals were Kym Amisola (CLA, -63 kg.), Justine Pongase (CLA, +63 kg.), Basti Nudalo (LSGH, -55 kg.), Maki Mandanas (CLA, -60 kg.), Joshua Ebrada (CLA, -66 kg.), Diego Tuazon (CBE, -73 kg.), Christian Sebastian (LSGH, -81 kg.), Cyril Santiago (CBE, -90 kg.) and Brian Azarcon (DLSZ, +100 kg.).
Marjorie Santiago (CLA, +63 kg.), David Gordon (LSGH, -55 kg.), Juan Capistrano (CCCC, -55 kg.), Paolo Amador (DLSZ, -60 kg.), Emilion Ylanan (DLSZ, -60 kg.), Andrew Davis (DLSZ, -66 kg.), Richard Zapanta (CCCC, -66 kg.), Immar Razon (CLA, -73 kg.), Kiel Batucabe (CLA, -73 kg.), Cars Carandang (CLA, -81 kg.), Cayronne Lim (CLA, -81 kg.), Francis Songco (DLSZ, -90 kg.), Rigo Rivera (DLSZ, -90 kg.), Ricardo Pena (CBE, +100 kg.) and JP Raval (LSGH, +100 kg.) wound up the bronze medallists.
“Having our Juniors (counterparts) with us assures the future of the DLSU Green Judokas to be firm and not really rely on recruiting players. The Inter-La Salle made us feel that we are all united for we share the same bond, value, dedication and love of our sport, Judo,” Ver ended.
