Asiad: Tolentino’s season-best good for bronze in men’s 110-m hurdles

(UPDATED) John Cabang Tolentino delivered the Philippines’ first medal in athletics in the 2026 Asian Games, blazing to the bronze medal in the men’s 110-meter hurdles on Sunday night at the Mizuho Park Athletic Stadium.

Tolentino crossed the line with a time of 13.48-seconds — a season-best for the sprinter.

He did enough to edge Hsieh Yuan-kai of Chinese-Taipei (13.55-s) for the bronze.

“I’m very happy. It was just a lot of self-pressure and I just did it, I just did it,” said Tolentino after his feat.

China’s Chen Yuanjiang ran away with the gold with a time of 13.15-s, followed by Japan’s Muratake Rachid (13.29-s).

It was an emotional victory for Tolentino, who was eager to make up for a near-miss in Hangzhou three years ago when he finished in fourth place.

He had qualified after clocking 13.58-s in the heats — a season-best before he improved upon it in the final on Sunday night.

Tolentino’s hard-earned feat is a milestone for Philippine athletics, ending the country’s decades-long medal drought in hurdles events at the continental showcase.

This is the first Asiad hurdles for the Philippines since Elma Muros in 1990, and the first for a Filipino male hurdler since 1954.

It also builds on Tolentino’s momentum. In December, he captured gold at the 33rd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Bangkok, Thailand, where he set a new SEA Games record of 13.66 seconds. His performance shattered the previous record of 13.69 seconds, which had been held by Thailand’s Jamras Rittidet since 2015.

“I was pushing and even [in] the hard times I kept pushing,” said Tolentino. “I have to become better and better, but after [the] Olympics, everything was uphill.”