Jakarta—Following a one-gold performance in the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, Korea, the Philippines came into the 2018 Palembang Jakarta Asiad with modest goals and low expectations, hoping for the best while expecting the worst.
After 17 days, the 227-strong delegation delivered four golds, two silvers and 15 bronze medals, its best showing in the games in eight years, improving on the 1-3-11 gold-silver-bronze haul of the delegation in the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.
“Our athletes can stand proud on the medal stand. We have really improved our medal tally from one gold, three silvers and 11 bronze medals. We’ve done better,” said Philippine Olympic Committee president Ricky Vargas.
Looking at the results, two common denominators stood out—women and youth power.
All of the Philippines’ gold medalists in the games are women, with the youngest at 17 years old— golfer Yuka Saso, who is joined by fellow golfers Bianca Pagdanganan, 21, and Kaye Lois Go, 19, and skateboarder Margielyn Didal, 19.
Even the oldest of them all in weightlifting icon Hidilyn Diaz is still a millennial at 27 years.
“The women in sports are really giving us so much pride. So we should really look at parity and bring in more [of them] in sports. They have proven that they can win,” Vargas said.
“You have a champion golfer at 17 [Saso] and a 19-year-old champion skateboarder, Margielyn [Didal]. The oldest is 27, Hidilyn [Diaz], who is still relatively young. Our athletes today have passion for their sports and have shown that they can win,” added Vargas, hopeful that in the next coming years, they can only get better representing the Philippines.
Vargas, of course, has every reason to be optimistic as the medal winners for the Philippines in the games have an average age of 22, with the oldest coming at 31 years, BMX bike bronze medalist Daniel Caluag.
Like in the past games, the same medal producers such as wushu, taekwondo and boxing had their share of the glory.
Taekwondo delivered three bronze medals, courtesy of Pauline Lopez in the women’s -57kg, and the poomsae teams of Dustin Jacob Mella, Jordan Dominguez and Rodolfo Reyes Jr. (men’s) and Juvenile Faye Crisostomo, Rinna Babanto and Janna Dominique Oliva.
Wushu had its two-bronze share through Agatha Wong in the Women’s Taijiquan and Taijijian All-Round and Dive Wally in the Women’s Sanda -52kg.
Vargas’ boxing had a silver from flyweight Rogen Ladon and two bronze medals from light flyweight Carlo Paalam and middleweight Eumir Marcial—a result which gave the Association of Boxing Alliances of the Philippines president “mixed emotions.”
“From the sport that I lead, I’m frustrated not by how the boxers performed, but how the results were judged,” Vargas said, ruing the judging in the games, which seemed to have favored boxers from Uzbekistan, the home country of International Boxing Federation interim president Gafuk Rakhimov.
“When boxing presidents and athletes come to your dugout saying that you won, it gives you a sense that injustice has been done. When the crowd from Indonesia and some from Thailand were cheering for the Philippines, then there must have been something wrong that had happened,” Vargas said.
While disappointment was aplenty in boxing, athletics, swimming, bowling and basketball, where a Jordan Clarkson-led Philippine team ended up with fifth place, there were also a couple of surprises in skateboarding, which produced a gold in the women’s street skate, and pencak silat, which contributed four bronze medals to the Philippine cause.
They are Almohaidib Abad in the Men’s Single, Dines Dumaan in the Men’s Class B 50kg to 55kg, Jefferson Rhey Loonin in the Men’s Class D 60kg to 65kg and beauty queen Cherry Bronze Regalado in the Women’s Single.
Adding to the total haul of the country were silver medalist Kiyomi Watanabe in the Women’s -63 kgs in judo and bronze medalists Maggie Ochoa in the Newaza Women’s -49kg ju-jitsu, and Junna Tsukii in the Women’s -50kg karate.
“The athletes were bringing in honors, reason the individual athletes need all the support. They get the blame, they get the reward, but our role is to really support the athletes. They are the most important part of the equation,” said Vargas in paying tribute to the athletes.