PHL wraps up 20th Asian Games with 29 medals

The Philippine delegation capped its 20th Asian Games campaign with 29 medals after two weeks of competition in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.

The Filipino athletes won four golds, nine silvers and 16 bronzes in the quadrennial meet, surpassing their 18-medal haul at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

Spearheading Team PHL’s gold-medal collection was Carlos Yulo, who bagged two golds in men’s artistic gymnastics in the floor exercise and vault.

Yulo delivered PHL’s first gold medal of the tournament, kicking off his twin-gold haul with a championship title in the floor exercise.

The Paris Olympic gold medalist entered his pet event with sheer determination and hunger to win, pulling off a flawless routine to top the scoresheet with a title-clinching tally of 14.666.

It was a closer quest for gold in the vault, as Yulo edged Iran’s Mahdi Olfati by 0.066 points to complete his back-to-back gold-medal haul.

After Yulo, Filipino pole vault sensation EJ Obiena contributed the third gold with a historic leap at Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium.

Obiena not only completed the title-clinching 5.91-meter leap, but he also surpassed his 5.90-meter clearance from four years ago to reset the Asian Games record.

The last gold medalist of the PHL delegation was Jeus Gabriel Derick Yape, who reigned supreme in the mixed individual virtual taekwondo event.

The 22-year-old jin got the better of Vietnam’s Ngoc Tuyet Sang Chau in the grand finals, scoring a clean 2-0 sweep.

Aside from bringing home a gold, Yape began his 20th Asian Games campaign with a bronze medal in the men’s individual poomsae event.

Yape averaged a final score of 9.0900, finishing behind South Korea’s Yun Kyusung, who dominated the field with a gold-clinching final average of 9.3800, and Thailand’s Navin Pinthasute, who garnered silver with 9.2800.

“Masaya ba tayo sa resulta? Yes,” said Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino.