The drive to build a house of champions continues as the Philippine Taekwondo Association (PTA) stages the SMART/MVPSF National Taekwondo Poomsae Championships on 5 July at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

The association, through the able leadership of Grandmaster Sung-Chon Hong, expressed confidence they can discover a new batch of talents from the more than 2,000 taekwondo jins who have confirmed participation in the one-day event.

The association is coming off a successful campaign in the recent Asian Taekwondo Championship in Mongolia where the Nationals brought home 11 medals — 10 of them from the poomsae athletes.

Backed by the Philippine Sports Commission, Philippine Olympic Committee and Milo, the tournament features two categories — Recognized Poomsae (Individual, Pair and Team) and Freestyle Poomsae (Individual, Mixed Pair, Team).

Respected club teams, including Central Gymnasium, Meta Taekwondo, and Discovery Pluz are in for exciting battle with top collegiate team like Ateneo de Manila University, Xavier School, University of Santo Tomas, University of the Philippines Diliman and De La Salle University.

Also fancied to do well are teams from the Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Pangasinan, Isabela, Pampanga, Cavite, Laguna, Bacolod, Iloilo, Cebu, Leyte, Cagayan de Oro, Davao and Gensan.

Poomsae, as in the past, has consistently attracted a large following — young and old — for its well-choreographed patterns of movements — not to mention the practice of taekwondo’s well-respected principles.

Competition will start promptly at 9 a.m.