Another gold is in the haul of Team Philippines.
On Friday, October 2, Team Philippines continued its multi-day streak of cropping medals at the ongoing 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
In the mixed virtual taekwondo finals event, which is a newly-introduced event in the sport’s program, 22-year-old athlete Jeus Yape competed for the country. There, he took on Ngoc Tuyet Sang Chau of Vietnam.
The Pinoy taekwondoin showed his might and quickly finished their match with the score of 2-0 and two knockouts.
“Super saya (ko) ngayon po. ‘Yun lang ‘yung pumapasok sa isip ko po,” he said after winning in an interview with One Sports. “Every win, nafe-feel ko na kaya po. As long as mananalo ako ng first round, alam ko na makakaya ko po (manalo).”
“Maganda rin ‘yung preparations po,” he said, sharing that he went on a training to South Korea to train for the continental games, especially with the new event is highly technical.
Jeus also said that he did not expect to win a gold medal. “Hindi ko po in-expect na dito ako mag-go-gold. Pero, ‘yung goal ko palagi is i-aim ko ‘yung pinakamataas na medal po. So far, I am happy po,” he shared.
Yape’s successful clinching of the gold medal in the sport follows the earlier wins of Olympic (and now, Asiad) double gold medalist Carlos Yulo and pole vaulter EJ Obiena.
