THE Asian Games in Japan closed Sunday after a fortnight of record-smashing displays from young stars, but marred by mix-ups, patchy crowds and accusations of mismanagement.
More than 17,000 athletes and officials, a bigger number than the Olympics, descended on Nagoya and Aichi prefecture for the continent’s premier sporting spectacular.
Chinese swimming sensation Yu Zidi, just 13, stole the show in the pool with three gold medals, all in Games-record times.
She looks set to be a major medal threat at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
The schoolgirl was named a Games MVP on Sunday to cap an extraordinary showing that saw her scorch to gold in the 200m butterfly and do the 200m-400m individual medley double.
But for all that, the shy teenager said: “I don’t think I am what people describe as a prodigy.”
Also in the pool, Japanese swimmer Shin Ohashi, himself only 17, smashed the men’s 200m breaststroke world record to delight the home crowd.
In athletics, where rain tumbled down over several days, Thai sprinter Puripol Boonson did the 100m-200m double and was named men’s MVP.
Four golds
The Philippines finished in 17th place, collecting four gold medals, nine silvers, and 16 bronzes.
China dominated for its 12th straight overall crown with 169 golds, 89 silvers, and 83 bronzes, and host country Japan followed with 83 golds, 95 silvers, and 91 bronzes.
South Korea placed third with a 39-43-68 gold-silver-bronze haul, India finished fourth with 21-27-37, and Uzbekistan rounded out the top five with 21-25-24.
While the 4-9-16 medal haul was lower than its medal harvests, especially during the 1960s to 1990s, the country still came up with its best medal showing since the 1962 Games in Jakarta, where it finished fifth with seven golds, six silvers, and 24 bronzes.
The Nagoya Games stood out as having the biggest silver haul after 1962.
The 1966 and 1970 Asiads in Bangkok saw the Philippines win 15 and nine silvers, respectively, but it only won two golds in 1966 and one in 1970.
Mirroring his Paris Olympics performance, Carlos Yulo ruled the floor exercise and vault apparatus back-to-back from Sept. 24 to give the country its first Asiad gymnastics medals
It took four days for the Philippines to win its third gold through EJ Obiena’s successful title defense in men’s pole vault on September 29.
Obiena also posted a meet record of 5.91m clearance, one-upping the 5.90m he set in the previous edition in Hangzhou, China, back in 2023.
On Oct. 2, taekwondo jin Jeus Yape made sure the Philippines matched its 4-gold haul from the 2018 and 2022 editions by ruling the inaugural mixed individual virtual taekwondo event.
Yape also secured a bronze in individual poomsae and the right to become Team Philippines’ flag bearer in the closing ceremony.
Yape’s gold highlighted the taekwondo team’s sterling campaign that also includes silver medals from Tatiana Mangin and Kurt Barbosa in the women’s -49kg and men’s -58kg kyorugi, respectively.
Juliana Candelaria added a silver medal in the women’s individual poomsae.
The 1-3-1 gold-silver-bronze haul by the nationals is the third best in the meet after South Korea and Iran.
Both the women’s soft tennis team and women’s kata team scored breakthrough medals in Nagoya.
Bien Zoleta, Princess Catindig, Hilary Paas, Shyryn Salazar, and Christy Sañosa teamed up to end the Philippines’ 32-year medal drought in women’s soft tennis with a bronze.
Samantha Emmanuelle Veguillas, Ysabielle Arrogante, and Rebecca Cyril Torres then joined forces to bag the country’s first medal in the Asiad team kata event, claiming a bronze.
Abegail Sinogbuhan, Jean Marie Sucalit, and Nelly Jay Salon grabbed the silver medal in the women’s sepak takraw team, securing the country’s highest finish in the sport since it debuted at the Asiad in 1990.
Kacey Dela Rosa, Amyah Espanol, Kennan Ka and Maria Pasilang clinched the country’s first-ever medal in Asian Games 3x3 basketball, taking the silver behind Japan.
In his tournament debut, Albert Ian Delos Santos ended a staggering 50-year podium drought for the Philippines in men’s weightlifting with a bronze medal in the men’s 70kg.
The 20-year-old also shattered his own standing junior world and junior Asian records, hoisting a 183kg clean and jerk and a 324kg total lift.
Heartbreaks also took place in the Philippine campaign in Nagoya, especially for Kayla Sanchez, who placed fourth in both the women’s 100m freestyle and 50m freestyle.
Sanchez clocked 53.65 seconds in the 100m, just 0.18 seconds behind bronze medalist Cheng Yujie, who timed 53.47.
The same thing happened in 50m, where Sanchez posted 24.75 seconds, 0.29 short of Cheng’s 24.46.
Sanchez established new national records in both events, but it didn’t seem to matter considering how agonizingly close she was to a podium finish.
Jiujitsu world champions Kimberly Custodio and Annie Ramirez, as well as Olympic boxing bronze medalist Aira Villegas, were favored to go deep in their campaigns, but ended up exiting early.
Custodio and Ramirez bowed out in their opening matches in the women’s 48kg and -52kg, respectively, and so was Villegas in the women’s boxing 51kg.
Favored to win the gold in women’s singles tennis, world No. 18 Alex Eala settled for bronze after a semifinal loss to the eventual champ and world No. 85 Wang Xiyu of China.
Eala’s direct continental qualification spot for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics also evaporated with the defeat.
Carlo Paalam made it to the gold medal round of the men’s 55kg class only to lose to Japanese Rui Yamaguchi in a controversial split decision.
Paalam failed to break the 16-year Philippine gold medal drought in Asiad boxing.
Paalam’s controversial loss and the early exits of Custodio, Ramirez, and Villegas, as well as Eala’s upset loss, ultimately denied the country its target of winning eight golds.
The hosts finished with 83 golds, a distant second in the medals table behind China with 169.
Japan’s tally included gold for Yuki Kurihara, who won an eSports competition aged 11, believed to make him the youngest Games champion in history.
Several sports with ambitions of making the Olympics made their debut, including padel, MMA and virtual taekwondo.
