Interview with Richard Gomez, the Philippines' chef de mission at the 2018 Asian Games. Camille B. Naredo, ABS-CBN News

JAKARTA—Before the Philippine delegation left for Indonesia for the 2018 Asian Games, chef-de-mission Richard Gomez had been modest in his expectations, conservative in his estimations.

“If we can win a few gold medals, then that would be a big accomplishment for the national team,” Gomez had said ahead of the competition.

All he wanted was to improve upon the measly one-gold output of the national team in Incheon, South Korea, four years ago, when BMX biker Daniel Caluag was the lone Filipino athlete to reach the top of the podium.

“It will be painful if we don’t have a gold, so anything better than one gold is definitely better than the last,” said Gomez during the first week of August.

Three weeks later, and it is mission accomplished for Gomez as the Philippines now has four gold medals in these Games — one from weightlifting care of Hidilyn Diaz, one from women’s individual golf care of Yuka Saso, one from women’s team golf, and one from women’s street skateboarding care of Margielyn Didal.

“Very happy kasi we exceeded our expectations,” Gomez told ABS-CBN News on Wednesday afternoon, a few hours after Didal’s golden accomplishment in Palembang. “Our athletes were really fighting.”

“I can say it's mission accomplished,” he also said.

The four gold medals matched the Philippines’ output in Doha 2006, when Joan Tipon and Violito Payla won for boxing, Antonio Gabica won for 9-ball, and Rene Catalan won in wushu.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the country also has a total of 17 medals, good for 17th place in the medal table. They expect to exceed that total as two boxers — Rogen Ladon and Carlo Paalam — are already assured of a bronze each as well.

Gomez stressed that more gold medals are possible for Team Philippines here.

“The games are not done yet,” he pointed out. “So pwede pa tayo madagdagan. We still have a big possibility na madagdagan ng medalya.”

“Hindi pa tayo tapos,” he stressed. “We still have two or three more possibilities.”

Gomez is hopeful that the boxers — Ladon, Paalam, and middleweight Eumir Marcial — will live up to expectations and produce more golds, while also noting that the country’s judokas — particularly Southeast Asian Games champions Mariya Takahashi and Kiyomi Watanabe — are also medal prospects.

More than anything, however, Gomez wants the Philippines’ performance in the Asian Games to serve as a “prelude” to the 2019 Southeast Asian Games that the country will host in Subic, Clark, and Manila late next year.

“Sana, when we all come back to the Philippines, the PSC (Philippine Sports Commission) will fully support our national athletes and its training pool, and maximize ‘yung potential natin in preparation for the SEA Games in 2019,” he said.

This support, said Gomez, should come in the form of financial aid that will allow national sports associations (NSAs) to hire foreign coaches and send its athletes to training abroad, while also improving the country’s sports facilities and buying world-class training equipment.

“We have a beautiful performance (here in the Asian Games), and dapat prelude na ito ng SEA Games,” he said. “So kailangan talaga, suportahan tayo ng PSC.”

(For more sports coverage, visit the ABS-CBN Sports website.)