Allain Ganapin missed out on the ticket to this year’s Tokyo Paralympic Games after settling for third place in the men’s K44 minus-75 kg class of the 2021 Asian Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament at Kempinski Hotel in Amman, Jordan, Sunday.
The qualification tournament gives the winner of the tournament the sole ticket to the Tokyo Games in August, but unfortunately it was not for the Filipino.
Mongolia’s Batbayar Shinebayar denied Ganapin the berth, winning the semifinal match at 41-10.
An exchange of kicks to the armor opened the match with the Filipino getting the first two points before the opponent replied quickly for a 2-all deadlock. From there, Batbayar attacked furiously and ended the round leading by nine, 11-2.
The lead went to 27-8 after another well-timed kick from the Mongolian, virtually putting Ganapin’s hopes out and sealing his place in the final.
The 2017 Oceania Para-Taekwondo Open bronze medalist earlier opened his campaign with a victory over hometown bet Ahmed Makableh, 32-25, in the quarterfinals.
It was a pretty tight contest from the start but Ganapin had the advantage at halfway point of the end of the second round at 22-18.
Makableh then cut the deficit to two at 23-25 after connecting on two sidekicks, but that was all the Jordanian could muster as Ganapin closed the match on his own terms with a flurry of attacks, ending the match with a 9-2 blast.
The country has still only one athlete qualified to the Tokyo Games so far, with Ernie Gawidan confirmed by World Para Swimming to have secured the slot for men’s 400 m freestyle S6. He needs to participate in another qualifier for reclassification.
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