Philippines’ gamers rejoice their win in opposition to Jordan on the males’s gold medal basketball sport between Jordan and Philippines throughout the 2022 Asian Video games in Hangzhou in China’s japanese Zhejiang province on October 6, 2023. (Photograph by WILLIAM WEST / Agence France-Presse)
As the ultimate wave of its hard-fighting athletes flies house a day after the conclusion of the nineteenth Asian Video games (Asiad), the Philippines left an indelible mark on this inexperienced metropolis of electrical vehicles and ultramodern synthetic intelligence that may reside on for generations.
The gold medal in males’s basketball — the nation’s predominant pastime — is again on Philippine shores after Gilas Pilipinas defied the chances within the knockout levels and received in swashbuckling type over Jordan within the finals for a win branded to be “value a thousand golds.’’
Whereas that victory restored the nation’s rightful declare to the throne in Asian hoops after 61 years, it didn’t make the headlines right here after Gilas tore down host China’s nice wall within the semifinals.
The large celebration occurred again house as proud basketball-crazed Filipinos reclaimed bragging rights of superiority within the continent.
But it surely shouldn’t overshadow EJ Obiena, the world’s No. 2 pole vaulter and Asia’s finest who quenched the nation’s thirst for a primary gold in these Video games after a number of failed makes an attempt in numerous sports activities earlier that noticed a few of the nation’s blue-chip athletes hit the showers early.
Almost per week later, jiujitsu grapplers Meggie Ochoa and Annie Ramirez reprised their roles because the best of their craft by rising victorious within the girls’s 48 kilograms and 57 kg divisions, respectively.
And who can neglect boxer Eumir Marcial, who fought within the gold medal match of the lads’s 80-kg boxing occasion solely to lose to what Filipino sports activities officers consider was a transparent hometown determination in opposition to China’s Tanglatihan Tuohetaerbieke?
“That match was ours. It might have been our fifth gold,’’ mentioned Philippine Olympic Committee president Bambol Tolentino. “Regardless, I’m very happy with what we completed.’’
Marcial, nonetheless, achieved his principal goal of nailing a spot in subsequent yr’s Paris Olympics.
“It’s nonetheless a really, excellent end, higher than all our earlier Asian Video games due to our victory in basketball,” Tolentino mentioned. There was a grave concern following Marcial’s silver efficiency that added to sanda warrior Arnel Mandal’s second-place output per week earlier than.
Gold medallist Philippines’ Margarita Ochoa (2L), silver medallist United Arab Emirates’s Balqees Abdulla (1L), bronze medallists Vietnam’s Phung Thi Hue (2R) and Thailand’s Pechrada Kacie pose for {a photograph} at a medal ceremony for Ju-jitsu girls’s 48kg occasion throughout the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Video games in Hangzhou, in China’s japanese Zhejiang province on October 5, 2023. (Photograph by ADEK BERRY / Agence France-Presse)
Philippines’ Ernest John Obiena in motion throughout the Males’s Pole Vault Last (Photograph by JEREMY LEE / Reuters)
Annie Ramirez reacts after successful the gold in girls’s jiu-jitsu within the Asian Video games. (Pool photograph from the Philippine Olympic Committee)
When the hope to not less than match the gold medals received within the 2018 Asiad in Indonesia was working out, the Gilas assortment of PBA (Philippine Basketball Affiliation) stars sprang a shock by turning again Iran within the quarterfinals and successful the semifinal in hostile territory in entrance of an antagonistic hometown crowd.
The Nationals met an analogous disapproval within the gold-medal sport in opposition to the Jordanians, however weren’t denied for repeating the feat that occurred six a long time again within the 1962 Jakarta Asiad the place corridor of famer Caloy Loyzaga nonetheless dominated the roost.
“Witnessing our Gilas Pilipinas take again the Asian basketball throne was one of many monumental victories for Staff Philippines right here in Hangzhou,’’ mentioned Philippine Sports activities Fee Chair Richard Bachmann, whose father, the late Olympian Kurt Bachmann, performed on that workforce.
Bachmann was a former nationwide dribbler himself and starred for La Salle earlier than enjoying for Alaska within the PBA. But it surely took a lifetime earlier than he might personally witness how his father basked in glory.
“My father, who was part of the workforce that final received the gold in 1962, could be very happy with this Gilas squad, which confirmed resilience and workforce spirit,’’ added Bachmann.
seventeenth general
Junna Tsukii was the final Filipino athlete to see motion right here, and fell quick in including to Staff PH’s medal cache, leaving the delegation with a ultimate rely of 4 gold, two silver and 12 bronze medals earlier than the flowery closing ceremonies on Sunday night time.
As anticipated, China once more wound up superior in its third internet hosting of the Video games with 201 golds, 111 silvers and 71 bronze medals.
“We had 4 golds, an Asian Video games file from Obiena and two from jiujitsu, changing the 2 that we misplaced in girls’s golf (received in 2018 in Jakarta),” mentioned Tolentino.
He added: “We completed seventeenth general and that’s one other accomplishment. Let’s take a look at the ultimate inserting and never the variety of medals.”
The Philippines got here three bronze medals in need of duplicating the medal hoard in 2018 and but the ambiance grew to become extra vibrant with the basketball gold.
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“We merely confirmed your complete continent that we’re No. 1 once more [in the sport the country loves most]. As I’ve mentioned, this victory is value a thousand golds,’’ mentioned a beaming Tolentino.