The 19-strong Philippine team for Tokyo Olympics 2020

Throughout the substantial background of the Olympic Gamings, no Filipino has actually ever before won a gold medal.

The Tokyo Olympics, pressed back a year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, can lastly be where the delay finishes. The Philippines is readied to area in a 19- solid set– the biggest because Sydney 2000 and also one of the most talent-rich in current memory.

Fulfill the professional athletes that will certainly be bring the Filipino project in Tokyo:

WEIGHT-LIFTING

Background likewise bids for Hidilyn Diaz

In 2016, Hidilyn Diaz made background by winning a silver medal in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics to come to be the very first Filipino female to win a medal in the Summertimes Gamings.

This year, background bids once more.

Diaz is aiming to lastly overcome the bulge in Tokyo– her 4th straight look in the Summer Seasons Gamings.

Diaz, that will certainly complete in the females’s 55- kg course, is just one of 2 Filipino weightlifters to receive the Tokyo Olympics with Elreen Ando the various other.

Ando, overflowing with possible at 22 years of ages, will certainly join the females’s 64- kg occasion.

The Cebu City local had a significant project in the 2021 Eastern Weight-lifting Championships in Uzbekistan where she declared 2 silver medals and also a bronze.

The 30- year-old Diaz, the satisfaction of Zamboanga City, invested a lot of her Tokyo build-up in Malaysia and also also established a brand-new individual document throughout her training there.

She is the ruling Eastern and also Southeast Eastern champ.

ACROBATICS

While the weight of assumptions from a country depriving for Olympic magnificence rests on the wide shoulders of Diaz, the risks likewise could not obtain any kind of larger for pint-sized celebrity Carlos Yulo.

The globe champ gymnast, also, is taken into consideration to be among the nation’s toughest wager s to win a gold medal.

Yulo, that ruled the flooring workout– his animal occasion– in the 2019 Globe Artistic Acrobatics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, has actually been developing his abilities in Japan for the previous 4 years under the support of trainer Munehiro Kugiyama.

Deadset on making background, the 21- year-old Yulo needed to decrease a deal by the Philippine Olympic Board (POC) to be the nation’s flag-bearer as he requires to completely prepare himself for the competitors which comes simply a day after the July 23 opening up event.

He is likewise targetting at the very least a silver medal in the safe and also a finals look in the identical bars.

SPORTS

An additional preferred to make the platform is EJ Obiena

The fast-rising post vaulter has actually been making waves in pre-Olympic events and also he means to do the very same in the grandest phenomenon in sporting activities.

Obiena, the very first Filipino to receive the Tokyo Gamings, has actually had his hands complete establishing nationwide documents and also winning medals occasionally– defeating the leading names in the sporting activity consisting of ruling Olympic champ Thiago Braz.

The 25- year-old Obiena, that is a second-generation celebrity, fell Braz for the gold in Sweden previously this month– an accomplishment that came simply days after he damaged the Philippine mark with a 5.87- meter dive for the silver medal in Poland.

He is currently rated globe No. 6 in post safe.

Kristina Knott, at the same time, locates herself as the only Filipino track celebrity in Tokyo.

Knott marked her course in the 30 th Southeast Eastern Gamings in 2019 with 4 medals– 2 golds in the 4×100 m combined relay and also 200 m and also a number of silvers in the 100 m and also 4×100 m relay occasions.

Knott wishes to offer her foes in the 200- meter rush a run for their cash.

The probabilities, nevertheless, are very piled versus Knott, that damaged Lydia de Vega’s 33- year-old Philippine document in the 100 m last August.

GOLF

From one budding super star to one more, Yuka Saso revealed nerves of steel on her method to winning the United States Female’s Open golf champion last June.

The very same sort of efficiency and also poise under incredible stress can definitely win her a gold medal in Tokyo too.

Ranked No. 9 worldwide, the Filipino-Japanese ace, that likewise has a set of Japan LPGA Excursion wins under her belt, has a reputable possibility to earn the nation’s very first Olympic gold.

Saso, that simply transformed 20 last month, isn’t the only Filipino golf enthusiast to certify.

Likewise taking a swing at a platform coating are Juvic Pagunsan and also Bianca Pagdanganan

Pagunsan, 43, might be the earliest participant of the Philippine delegation to Tokyo however his experience will most definitely be to his benefit. Simply 2 months earlier, Pagunsan ruled the 2021 Mizuno Open to declare his very first Japan Golf Excursion title.

Like Saso, the 23- year-old Pagdanganan likewise transformed heads as an LPGA newbie. The previous College of Arizona standout, that won a United States NCAA Department I title in 2018, went into the Olympics rated No. 43 worldwide.

Pagdanganan, like Saso, is an Eastern Gamings gold champion and also won 2 golds in the 2019 Southeast Eastern Gamings.

In Rio, the Philippines had just Miguel Tabuena as its rep in golf and also he completed 53 rd on the whole.

SWIMMING

Swimmers Luke Gebbie and also Treatment Regulation protected Olympic berths through universality locations by the International Swimming Federation (FINA) to finish the nation’s delegation.

Gebbie, that is based in Melbourne, will certainly attempt his good luck in the guys’s 100 meter and also 50 m freestyle occasions. Regulation, 24, will certainly want to make a dash in the 200 m butterfly and also 200 m freestyle.

Their maiden advocate the Philippines in the Fina Globe Championships did marvels when they used the nation’s shades once more numerous months later on in the SEA Gamings.

Gebbie won the silver medal in the 4×100 m freestyle relay while including a bronze in the 50 m freestyle occasion. Regulation landed several medals– a number of silver medals in the 200 m butterfly and also 4×100 m butterfly and also a set of bronzes in the 200 m freestyle and also 4 ×200 freestyle relay occasions.

BOXING

The Philippines winning an Olympic gold medal was constantly taken into consideration a puncher’s possibility, however this year’s set might simply obtain it.

Flaunting a schedule of achieved abilities, the nation has 4 fighters that have actually shown themselves in the local and also continental degrees consisting of 2 pugs that have actually made it right into the globe phase.

Among one of the most embellished amateur fighters in Philippine background, middleweight wager Eumir Marcial prepares to make his mark in the most significant showing off phenomenon worldwide.

Currently a tested name in the local circuit with 3 gold medals in the Southeast Eastern Gamings, Marcial punched his ticket to the Gamings when he caught gold in the 2020 Asia and also Oceania Boxing qualifiers prior to going professional and also winning his specialist launching battle.

While Marcial made instant influence, it took Nesthy Petecio a while to win her very first medal as an amateur.

It was just after 4 years that Petecio won a silver in the 2011 SEA Gamings, and also the following 7 saw right here reach the cusp of success just to opt for a silver in both the continental and also local degree.

Yet Petecio altered the story in2019 She won her very first gold medal in the AIBA Globe Championships, ending up being the 2nd Filipina to do so, after that continue to control the competitors in the SEA Gamings to obtain the leading reward too.

The difference of being the very first Filipino female to receive the Olympics, however, comes from Irish Magno.

Greater than a years because finding boxing at 16, Magno had her arm elevated after beating Tajikistan’s Sumaiya Qosimova in the box-off round of the 2020 Asia and also Oceania Boxing OQT to schedule her ticket to the Summertimes Gamings.

The last of the fighters to make it to Tokyo likewise had modest origins, perhaps even humbler than a lot of.

From scavenging for scraps to testing for gold, it’s secure to claim that Carlo Paalam has actually genuinely made it.

Unlike Magno and also Marcial that certified through the OQT, Paalam gained his place in Tokyo through his globe positions that the International Olympic Board Boxing Job Pressure acknowledged for his addition in the Olympics.

TAEKWONDO

In simply 3 years, taekwondo jin Kurt Barbosa went from completing in the UAAP to standing for the Philippines in the coming Tokyo Olympics.

Barbosa, that comes from Bangued in Abra, very first obtained acknowledged in the Philippine National Gamings leading him to the Philippine Taekwondo Organization’s grassroots program.

After That Barbosa made an instant influence for National College winning both Novice of the Year and also MVP in Period 81 and also simply a year later on, was winning a gold medal in the SEA Gamings.

The 22- year-old professional athlete will certainly be the only Filipino in the taekwondo competitors, scheduling his port in the Olympics i n one of the most significant method feasible– returning from a 10- factor shortage and also spectacular Jordan’s Zaid Al-Halawani 50-49

ROWING

Though some professional athletes started their professions as early as feasible, Cris Nievarez needed to very first discover his after switching over from one sporting activity to one more.

Nievarez was practically established for an occupation in sports, also representing his district in the Palarong Pambansa. Yet in 2015, he located the sporting activity that would certainly bring him to the most significant showing off occasion worldwide.

Upon the invite of previous nationwide rower Justine Viñas, Nievarez dropped the track for the open water and also committed himself to rowing.

Currently, Nievarez is the Philippines’ very first rower in 21 years– because Benjie Tolentino in the 2000 Sydney Gamings– to complete in the Olympics after certifying through his continental certification regattas.

The 21- year-old SEA Gamings gold champion will certainly be joining the guys’s solitary sculls occasion in Tokyo.

SKATE BOARDINGS

Boxing, taekwondo, and also rowing are taken into consideration typical sporting activities in the Olympics. Yet Margielyn Didal is anything however typical, and also she made it to the Olympics through a sporting activity that is making its Summertimes Gamings launching.

Pioneer is simply one method of defining Didal, not just transforming the understanding of skateboarders in the nation however likewise gathering priceless medals together with it.

From skate boarding for enjoyable, Didal damaged the glass ceiling for the Philippines in the sporting activity after completing in the X Gamings and also winning gold medal in the Eastern Gamings in2018 She after that followed it up with 2 even more gold medals in the 2019 SEA Gamings.

Didal reserved her place in the road occasion of the Olympics through her position on the planet Skate’s table.

JUDO

While Didal has the creativity on the roads, Kiyomi Watanabe has the stamina and also scare tactics on the floor coverings.

After going for bronze in her very first SEA Gamings competitors in 2011, Watanabe continued to control the area and also won 4 gold medals in the doing well years of the biennial satisfy as she relocated below 70 kg to 63 kg.

Watanabe likewise handled to grab a bronze in the International Judo Federation Globe Scenic Tour in Paris and also 2 silver medals in the Eastern Gamings in Jakarta and also European Open in Paris.

Watanabe, a solid wager for a medal, protected her place in the Olympics through continental allocation in her department based on the IJF.

CAPTURING

From stamina to accuracy, Jayson Valdez made certain his desire would certainly come true. I t took a modification of sporting activity and also a little pf destiny stepping in for Valdez to enter the globe’s most significant showing off competitors.

Valdez, the boy of previous nationwide group shooter Julius Valdez, originally went after taekwondo at 13 and also just occupied capturing as a recreation with his daddy.

The older Valdez after that urged his boy to use up his sporting activity with one more nationwide group shooter Nathaniel “Tac” Padilla supplying additional support.

The adjustment eventually repaid as Valdez, that is a Philippine document owner for 10- meter air rifle, reserved his ticket to Tokyo Gamings through an allocation place from the International Capturing Sporting Activity Federation.

Comply With Inquirer Sports’ protection of the Tokyo Olympics 2020.

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