From Nagoya to LA

MANILA, Philippines — POC president Abraham “Bambol’ Tolentino had the 2028 LA Olympics in mind during the recently-concluded Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games and said yesterday the run-up got off to a strong start with 10 of the Philippines’ 16 medal-producing sports listed in the Olympic calendar.

“All of our gold medals were in Olympic sports, meaning that’s the direction,” said Tolentino. “That’s the focus in our preparations. ‘Yan din dapat tutukan for training ng mga coaches sa qualifying tournaments to compete for all available slots. Huwag tumigil at pati funding huwag ibitin.”

The 10 Olympic sports where the Philippines delivered medals in Nagoya were gymnastics, taekwondo, athletics, 3x3 basketball, archery, boxing, beach volleyball, surfing, tennis and weightlifting. The six non-Olympic sports where the Philippines bagged medals were jiu-jitsu, mixed martial arts, sepak takraw, e-sports, karate and soft tennis.

In the previous Asian Games, the Philippines brought home medals from 11 sports, including 5x5 basketball, cycling and wushu which all went blank in Nagoya.

Tolentino noted that in the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games, the country’s gold medalists were all women – skateboarder Margie Didal, weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz, golfer Yuka Saso and the golf team of Saso, Bianca Pagdanganan and Lois Go. This year, the gold medalists were all men – gymnast Carlos Yulo, pole vaulter EJ Obiena and taekwondo’s Jeus Yape. “Bumawi men sa gold kasi sa Indonesia, all women,” said Tolentino.

The POC chief cited taekwondo as the top-performing NSA in Nagoya with one gold, three silvers and a bronze for five medals. Gymnastics and athletics had three medals each. “The best male athletes were Carlos, EJ and Yape while the best female athlete was Alex Eala for choosing to play for the country but all the other female medalists were also at the top of my list,” he said.