At just 18 years old, Juliana Candelaria announced her arrival on the biggest stage of her young career, delivering a silver-medal performance for the Philippines in the women’s individual poomsae on the opening day of taekwondo at the 20th Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 on Thursday at the Toyohashi Gymnasium.
The teenage upstart opened her final with a strong 9.200 in the recognized poomsae before following it up with a 9.060 in her freestyle routine. Her two scores gave Candelaria an average of 9.1300, briefly putting her atop the standings.
But South Korea’s Jung Haeun produced a massive 9.3100 average to overtake Candelaria and claim the gold, leaving the Filipino teenager with a silver in her Asian Games debut.
