NAGOYA, Japan – Newly crowned Asian Games champion Jeus Yape has been selected to carry the Philippine flag during Sunday’s closing ceremony of the 20th Asian Games, a fitting honour for the taekwondo standout who delivered one of Team Philippines’ biggest moments in Nagoya.
Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham Tolentino announced the decision on the eve of the closing festivities, which will be held at the Nagoya City Mizuho Park Athletics Stadium, the same venue that hosted the opening ceremony two weeks ago.
“He’s deserving of that honour,” Tolentino said, citing Yape’s breakthrough achievement in helping end a decades-long gold medal drought for Philippine taekwondo at the Asian Games.
Yape emerged as one of the country’s top performers in the continental meet after winning bronze in the men’s individual poomsae event before capturing gold in the mixed individual virtual taekwondo competition. His victory in the pioneering discipline marked the Philippines’ first Asian Games taekwondo gold medal since 1994, when the sport was first included in the programme.
The virtual taekwondo champion’s success also spearheaded the Philippine taekwondo team’s impressive five-medal haul, highlighted by one gold and four bronzes.
Joining Yape in the closing ceremony parade are fellow taekwondo medalists Juliana Mykhail Candelaria, Tachiana Keizha Mangin, and Kurt Barbosa, along with boxer Carlo Paalam.
During the opening ceremony on September 19, the Philippine flag was carried by Paris Olympics boxing bronze medalist Aira Villegas and world junior weightlifting champion Albert Ian de los Santos.
Yape’s selection as flag bearer serves as a symbolic finale to a memorable Asian Games campaign, celebrating not only his historic gold-medal performance but also the resurgence of Philippine taekwondo on the continental stage.
