Gomez expects more mints

JAKARTA, Indonesia — With the 18th Asian Games entering its halfway mark, chief of mission Richard Gomez is pumped up and confident that Filipino athletes could duplicate one of its best performances in this tournament ever.

Gomez said the gold medal of weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz should set the tone for an impressive participation in the next few days as they already surpassed the solitary mint performance in the Incheon edition of the Asiad in 2014.

Diaz lifted the hopes of the entire nation when she clinched the gold medal in the women’s -53kg event late Tuesday at the Jakarta International Expo Hall.

Aside from Diaz’s golden feat, the country also collected five bronze medals from men’s and women’s poomsae, wushu and taekwondo.

“It’s a good day for us. We’re hopeful that we can produce some more medals from other sports,” said Gomez after watching the Philippines grab its first win over Hong Kong in the women’s volleyball competition at the Gor Bulungan Stadium here.

“We already have one gold and five bronze and we’re hoping to have more medals in the coming days.”

The Philippines’ best performance in the Asian Games in recent memory was in 2010 in Guangzhou where boxer Rey Saludar, bowler Biboy Rivera and cue artist Dennis Orcollo delivered the gold medals.

Prior to that, the Philippines had four gold medals in the Doha edition in 2006 with boxers Joan Tipon and Violito Payla, cue artist Antonio Gabica and wushu fighter Rene Catalan contributed to the golden haul.

“Well, our boxers have yet to play as well as our jiu-jitsu bets. I hope we can win gold medals there. We’re hopeful. I hope this could be the start.”