In Asian Games history, the Philippines has delivered 12 athletics gold medals with pole vaulter EJ Obiena claiming the last honor in 2022. In the Aichi-Nagoya edition this year, PATAFA is sending 24 athletes, including two reserves with the hope of pulling some podium surprises. PATAFA president Terry Capistrano is tempering expectations and not about to put more pressure on the team by making bold predictions. There are 50 gold medals at stake in athletics, 24 in men’s events, 24 in women’s and two in mixed and shooting for a podium finish is a challenge.
Obiena, 30, produced the country’s only athletics medal in the last Asiad and is gearing to retain the gold. He’s the only Filipino athletics gold medalist since 100m champion Lydia De Vega ruled in 1986. There have been only 12 Filipino Asian Games gold medalists in 71 years. The honor roll lists high jumper Andres Franco in 1951, 100m runner Inocencia Solis in 1958, long jumper Visitacion Badana in 1958, the men’s 4x100m relay team of Remegio Vista, Isaac Gomez, Pedro Subido and Enrique Bautista in 1958, 100m and 200m champion Mona Sulaiman in 1962, the men’s 4x100m relay team of Vista, Gomez, Claro Pellosis and Rogelio Onofre in 1962, the women’s 4x100m relay team of Sulaiman, Solis, Aida Molinos and Francisca Sanopal in 1962, discus thrower Josephine De La Vina in 1966, 100m queen De Vega in 1982 and 1986 and Obiena in 2022. Obiena, 30, is now ranked World No. 12 and will face a serious challenge from World No. 16 Seifeldin Abdelsalam of Qatar, 21, in Nagoya.
“This is the Asian Games,” said Capistrano. “Tremendous pressure for all our athletes even for veterans like EJ, Carlos Yulo and Alex Eala.” Yulo, a two-time Olympic gymnastics gold medalist, made his Asian Games debut in 2018, finishing fourth in vault and seventh in floor exercise. This will be his second Asiad appearance. Eala, the WTA No. 18 player, is also making her second Asiad stint. In 2022, she won bronze in women’s singles and mixed doubles.
Heading this year’s PATAFA contingent in Nagoya are Paris Olympians Obiena, 110m hurdler John Cabang and 400m hurdler Lauren Hoffman. Included on the roster are 2020 Olympian Kristina Knott, 2026 Asian Beach Games high jump gold medalist Leonard Grospe, Zion Corrales Nelson, Naomi Johnson, Jessica Laurence, Naomi Cesar, Yacine Guermali and Victoria Bossong. Making her national team debut is Harvard neuroscience graduate and middle distance runner Bossong who traces her Filipino roots to Oriental Mindoro and whose mother Dr. Catalina Atienza, a dentist, graduated from Centro Escolar University.
PATAFA secretary-general Jasper Tanhueco said the final athletics lineup will be announced late this month or early the next. “Most of the other athletics federations have not released their lineups,” he said. “We’re monitoring their entries to help us strategize as some of our athletes are currently entered in two individual events but may focus on just one, depending on the competition and lineups, to maximize our chances of winning medals.”