MANILA — Jeus Gabriel Derick Yape turned the mixed individual virtual taekwondo final into a one-sided showcase, crushing Vietnam’s Ngoc Tuyet Sang in straight rounds to deliver the Philippines’ fourth gold medal at the 2026 Asian Games on Friday at the Toyohashi Gymnasium in Nagoya, Japan.
The University of Santo Tomas standout overwhelmed Sang, 500-0, in the opening round before finishing the Vietnamese bet with an even more emphatic 620-0 victory in the second for a 2-0 championship sweep.
Yape ended the gold-medal match with 1,120 remaining health points while Sang was reduced to zero. The Filipino registered 21 total kicks, including five head kicks, while also producing five blocks.
The gold completed an impressive run through the virtual taekwondo bracket for Yape, who survived Saudi Arabia’s Dunya Saber, 2-1, in the round of 16 before sweeping Japan’s Hayate Suzuki, 2-0, in the quarterfinals.
Yape then blanked Kazakhstan’s Rita Bakisheva, 2-0, in the semifinals to earn his shot at the championship.
The triumph also gave Yape his second medal of the Asian Games after capturing bronze in the men’s individual poomsae on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Filipino boxer Carlo Paalam settled for silver after losing to Japan’s Rui Yamaguchi in the men’s 55-kilogram gold-medal bout.
Paalam struggled to generate enough offense in the opening two rounds before becoming more aggressive in the final frame. His late rally, however, was not enough to reverse the outcome, with three of the five judges scoring the bout in Yamaguchi’s favor.
In women’s beach volleyball, Sofiah Pagara and Khylem Progella pulled off a stirring comeback against China’s Shuting Cao and Jie Dong, 13-21, 23-21, 15-13, to secure the bronze medal.
After dropping the opening set, Pagara and Progella fought back in the second to force a deciding frame. The Filipinas then erased a four-point deficit in the third set before completing the comeback.
The bronze marked the Philippines’ best finish in women’s beach volleyball at the Asian Games since the sport debuted at the 1994 Hiroshima Games.
Jenna Kaila Napolis also added a bronze medal in the women’s jiu-jitsu -52 kilogram category after defeating Mongolia’s Tsagaanbileg Altangerel, 2-0, in the third-place match./PN
