Philippines caps 2026 Asian Games with 29 medals, best haul in 64 years

ASM, Philippine Canadian Inquirer
October 06, 2026

Photo courtesy: Daily Guardian

NAGOYA, Japan – Team Philippines closed its 2026 Asian Games campaign with 29 medals, marking the country’s strongest showing at the continental meet in 64 years.

Filipino athletes finished the Aichi-Nagoya Games with four gold, nine silver and 16 bronze medals, placing the Philippines 17th overall as competition concluded on October 4. 

The Philippine Sports Commission described the performance as the country’s best since the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta, where the national delegation collected 37 medals – seven golds, six silvers and 24 bronzes. 

Leading the 2026 campaign was two-time Olympic champion Carlos Yulo, who delivered half of the Philippines’ gold medals by winning the men’s floor exercise and vault titles in artistic gymnastics. 

Pole vaulter EJ Obiena added another gold while successfully defending his Asian Games crown. He cleared 5.91 meters, setting a new Games record in the process. 

The fourth gold came from Jeus Gabriel Derick Yape, who ruled the mixed individual virtual taekwondo event. Yape also earned bronze in men’s individual poomsae, making him one of the Philippines’ multiple medalists in Nagoya. 

Taekwondo emerged as the country’s most productive sport by medal count, contributing five medals – Yape’s gold and bronze, along with silver medals from Juliana Mykhail Candelaria, Tachiana Mangin and Kurt Barbosa. 

The Philippine campaign also produced podium finishes across a wide range of disciplines. Athletics delivered three medals through Obiena, Victoria Bossong and John Cabang Tolentino, while gymnastics added Eldrew Yulo’s horizontal bar bronze to Carlos Yulo’s two titles.

Other notable results included Carlo Paalam’s boxing silver, Alex Eala’s second consecutive women’s singles tennis bronze, Alexandria Enriquez’s jiu-jitsu silver, and the Philippine women’s first Asian Games medal in 3×3 basketball. The delegation also reached the podium in sports including archery, sepak takraw, esports, karate, weightlifting, surfing, soft tennis and beach volleyball. 

Enriquez delivered the country’s 29th and final medal, taking silver in the women’s 63-kilogram jiu-jitsu event after reaching the gold-medal match against Thailand’s Orapa Senatham. 

The 29-medal finish also maintained the Philippines’ four-gold output from the previous two editions – the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games and the 2023 Hangzhou Games – while substantially increasing the overall number of podium finishes. 

Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino said the results also carried significance heading toward the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, noting that most of the medals came from Olympic sports. 

Yape, the country’s gold and bronze medalist in taekwondo, carried the Philippine flag during the closing ceremony at Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletics Stadium as Team Philippines formally ended its most productive Asian Games campaign since 1962.