Mary Antoinette Rivero Lost In Women’s 57-67 kg Match

This is a bad news to all Filipinos. Our very own Mary Antoinette Rivero lost in Women’s 57-67 kg match against Sandra Saric of Crotia, with a score of 4- 1 in favor of the Crotian athlete. Rivero needs 4 straight wins to bag the gold and 3 to get the silver. But unfortunately she’s defeated in her first fight.

Mary “Toni” Rivero is a veteran in Taekwondo having made it to the finals in Athens Olympics at the age of 16 and almost brought home the bronze for the Philippines.

At the world qualifying tournament in Manchester last year, Rivero beat Brnic of Bosnia Herzogovina and Cherkun of Ukraine but lost to Saric in a sudden death kick-0ff. Rocky Samson, the national women’s coach protested Saric’s victory insisting that the sudden death was for a right kick in the arm. It shouldn’t have been counted. When Rivero countered on the open side, it should have been a point as well, but the judges failed to see it.

This time again in the Beijing Olympics 2008, Rivero lost to Saric. A total disappointment for Rivero. But there is no doubt that Rivero is a very good Taekwondo fighter. We “Filipinos” fully support her and are proud of her and the other Filipino athletes in the Olympics.