One for the history books
X-Games veteran Margielyn Didal dominated the competition in the 18th Asian Games Skateboarding Champion en route to the Philippines’ fourth gold in the continental meet, Wednesday afternoon at the JSC – SkateBoard Stadium in Palembang, Indonesia.
“I gave everything, I gave my best,” reflected Didal.
Every gold by the Philippines has been won by the country’s women athletes.
Hidilyn Diaz first struck gold last August 21 in the Women’s -53kg of the weightlifting competition. Five days later, Yuka Saso took down gold in the Women’s individual golf tournament, followed by another gold in the Women’s team event with Bianca Pagdanganan and LK Go.
But Didal’s gold is unprecedented.
Not only is this the Philippines’ first-ever gold in the sport – the 19-year-old Cebuana will forever be known as the Asian Games’ first champion in the event.
“Skateboarding is fun. Skateboarding should be everywhere,” she added.
Didal was a class of her own in the eight-woman field, tallying a final score of 30.4 – 5.4 points ahead of silver medalist Kaya Isa.
Moreover, she was simply flawless.
Didal’s first trick was a backside on the handrail. And it was just a start of her exhibition.
She then followed it up with an ollie melon grab down the stairs and a buntslide on a rail. Her fourth trick was a backslide 50-50 to a 360 flip that gave her a 30.4 – good enough for gold.
