Tokyo Olympics veteran Kurt Barbosa and Southeast Asian (SEA) Games champion Tachiana Keizha Mangin spearhead a strong 29-player SMART-MVPSF Philippine team that will see action in the 2026 Asian Taekwondo Championships from 19 to 27 May in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

With the event being a qualifier for the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, Philippine Taekwondo Association (PTA) Grandmaster Sung-Chon Hong expects the best and toughest fighters from South Korea, Iran, China, Uzbekistan, Taiwan, Cambodia and Thailand to likewise compete in the week-long event.

Hong and other PTA officials, including head of delegation Raul Samson, are confident that this year’s batch has what it takes to pull off a big surprise and end the country’s gold medal drought in free sparring (Kyorugi).

Mangin, for one, is fancied to figure prominently in the -49kg division owing to her extraordinary win in her SEA Games debut last year in Chonburi, Thailand that saw her outclass local bet Kamonchanok Seeken, 2-0.

Mangin’s gold-medal win validated her new-found status as the new face of the sport in the country as it came just a little over a year since her historic victory in the 2024 World Taekwondo Junior Championships in Chuncheon, South Korea.

Other members of the Phl team that is backed by the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee and Milo are Algen Aynaga (-58kg), Mythaious Angelous Francois Lustado (-63kg), Kenneth Riley Buenavides (-68kg), Dave Cea (-74kg), and Nicolas Aaron Castillo (-80kg) in the men’s free sparring while beefing up the women’s free sparring are Clarence Sarza (-46 kg.), Baby Jessica Canabal (-53kg.), Czarina Mae Danganan (-57kg). Jubilee Briones (-62kg) and Laila Delo (-67kg).