Team Philippines will close the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games with its biggest total medal haul in 60 years, with help from taekwondo, whose breakout star-gold medalist Jeus Gabriel Derick Yape-was chosen to carry the flag in the athletes’ parade Sunday.
The Philippines has won 29 medals-four gold, eight silver and 16 bronze-at press time on Saturday, surpassing every national total since the 1966 Asian Games in Bangkok, where the country collected 42 medals.
The previous Philippine high during that 60-year span was 26 medals at the 2002 Busan Asian Games.
‘This is our best medal performance in decades,’ Philippine Sports Commission Chair Patrick Gregorio said in Filipino.
Yape will carry the Philippine flag at the closing ceremony on Sunday at Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium, the same venue that hosted the opening ceremony on Sept. 19.
‘He deserves that honor,’ Philippine Olympic Committee President Abraham ‘Bambol’ Tolentino said.
Yape won the mixed individual virtual taekwondo gold medal on Oct. 2 and also took bronze in men’s individual poomsae, making him one of the Philippines’ two-medal winners in Aichi-Nagoya.
His gold highlighted a breakthrough Asian Games for Philippine taekwondo, which collected one gold, three silvers and one bronze.
‘It will be a recognition not only for Jeus but also for taekwondo, which finally won its first Asian Games gold medal since 1994, when the sport became a medal event in the Games,’ Tolentino said.
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Virtual taekwondo combines the sport with motion-tracking technology and a virtual competition environment. Yape won the mixed individual event, which was open to male and female competitors.
Silver medalists Juliana Mykhail Candelaria, Tachiana Keizha Mangin and Kurt Barbosa of taekwondo, and Carlo Paalam of boxing are also expected to join the Philippine delegation in the closing ceremony.
Boxer Aira Villegas and weightlifter Albert Ian Delos Santos carried the Philippine flag during the opening ceremony.
Gregorio said the size of the medal haul marked a significant step for the national program.