PSC, PPC salute Phl para athletes

NAGOYA, Japan — The Philippine contingent to the 5th Asian Para Games received rave reviews from the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) following its 17th place finish in the quadrennial event which drew to a close Saturday.

The Philippines is returning from its campaign with a decent haul of two gold, two silver and three bronze medals.

After more than a week of grueling action, the Filipinos delivered two golds courtesy of tankers Ernie Gawilan and Arjay Alegarbes, silvers from Gawilan and the table tennis mixed doubles pair of Wilfred Redulla and Lhey Manginsay, and bronzes from swimmer Raemond Adefuin, runner King James Reyes and shot putter Ma. Ravinia Carpena.

The collection surpassed the Philippines’ performance in the last edition in Hangzhou three years ago when chess, which the Japanese hosts excluded from this year’s program, was taken out of the tally.

In Hangzhou, the Filipinos bagged 10 golds, four silvers and five bronzes, with chess accounting for eight golds, three silvers and two bronzes.

“It was a very successful performance, congratulations,” said Gregorio, who flew in for the final two days of the event to cheer for the Filipinos.

“More or less, with what we did last Para minus chess, of course, we did well,” said Philippine Paralympic Committee (PPC) president Mike Barredo.

The Philippine squad is now looking forward to the next edition in 2031 in Doha, Qatar, where it hopes to make the country proud again.

“What’s important is the athletes will continue to get support,” Gregorio said.

Gregorio and Barredo also met with Asian Paralympic Committee president Majid Rashed to discuss plans to collaborate on building the Philippines’ first training center exclusively for para athletes.