DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—The future looks bright for young Filipino para athletes after exceeding their overall expectations at the 2025 Asian Youth Para Games that concluded on Saturday, Dec. 14, here.
Pending the official release of overall medal results at press time, Team Philippines collected eight gold, 14 silver and eight bronze medals — a far cry from the country’s previous medal haul in Manama, Bahrain where they brought home one gold, six silver and two bronze medals.
Philippine Paralympic Committee president Mike Barredo lauded the efforts of the 48-member PH team supported by the Philippine Sports Commission, which surpassed its overall previous performance in just two days of competition.
“I’m very proud of them because we have outdone our medal tally in Bahrain more than five times,” said Barredo.
“There may be sports where we didn’t get medals, but I think this is a good start for our youth program. We are headed in the right direction and this is a good showcase of what our youth can do,” he added.
Para swimmers accounted for the most medals for Team PH with six gold, six silver and two bronze medals courtesy of Ric Daniel Pasadilla, Mary Hannah Diesto, Raemond Adefuin, Zach Lucas Obsioma and Bladimir Sebastian Gonzales.
Pasadilla, a 13-year-old student of Pototan National Comprehensive High School in Iloilo, became the most bemedalled Filipino para athlete in this edition after bringing home three gold medals in the boys 12-16 200-meter individual medley SM10, 100m back S10, and 100m butterfly S10, as well as one silver in the 100m free S10 and one bronze in the 100m breaststroke SB9.
Para athletics also delivered two gold medals courtesy of John Rey Diano in the men’s long jump U20 T20 and RJ Brucal in the men’s long jump T20 U17. They also pocketed five silver medals from Mark Lorence Suarez (men’s long jump U20 T20), Edwina Aquino (women’s 100m U20 T12), Lexia Sianen (women’s javelin throw U20 F46) and Charmel Bada (women’s 400m T20 and women’s long jump T20), as well as two bronze medals from Jolly Poquiz (men’s long jump U20 T20) and Kyle Norte (men’s 100m U20 T20), with other results still pending for official confirmation.
Para table tennis players also managed one silver from Lhey Manginsay in the women’s U23 singles Class 9, and three bronze medals from Ramces Tuala (men’s U23 singles Class 8, Barge Cabañero (men’s singles class 6-7), and the mixed doubles pair of Tuala and Manginsay in the U20 class 12-17).
Daniela Catacutan also delivered a silver medal for boccia in the individual BC1 female, as well as John Cyrus Maclang in the para badminton with Chinese Taipei partner Lin Jia Shang in the SH6 doubles.
Para archery Jannah Ballesta, for her part, bagged the bronze at the women’s W1 Open U21.
Barredo said their latest successful conquest was part of the strong connection to the Palarong Pambansa program.
“Several of our athletes who won medals here are talents identified at the Palarong Pambansa and I think we should push for more sports to include at the Palaro so that we could produce more athletes who could win medals for the Philippines,” said Barredo.
Barredo also praised the coaches who identified, trained and developed the athletes.
“There is now more awareness across the country on what para sports is and what events are, and our coaches are doing a good job by being able to identify the talents around the country,” he said.
