THE 20th Asian Games formally unfurls on Saturday with the opening ceremony to be held at the Mizuho Park Athletics Stadium.
The Philippines will be part of the traditional parade of nations where Aira Villegas and Albert Ian Delos Santos will carry the flag during the ceremony.
Flag carriers in the opening ceremony are usually given to the athletes who have the brightest prospects to win medals in the Asian Games. Get to know the two flag bearers of the Philippine delegation.
AIRA VILLEGAS
This Filipina boxer is perhaps the most recognizable athlete among the flag carriers to the casual fans. Villegas was one of the two bronze medalists during the 2024 Paris Olympics, a distinction that she shares with fellow boxer Nesthy Petecio.
Villegas had a scintillating run at that bronze medal where she stunned second-seed Roumaysa Boualam of Algeria, 5-0, in the round of 16, and No. 7 Wassila Lkhadiri of France in the quarterfinals, 3-2. She lost to Buse Naz Cakiroglu of Turkey, 5-0, in the semifinals but enough to secure a bronze in Paris.
The 31-year-old Villegas recently captured the silver medal in the 2025 Southeast Asian Games, with her only loss in the competition coming at the expense of hometown bet and reigning Asian Games silver medalist Chuthamat Raksat in the women’s 50kg final.
Villegas will be competing in her second Asian Games in the women’s 51kg division. She had a forgettable debut in 2023 when she was beaten in her first bout by eventual silver medalist Oyuntsetsegiin Yesugen of Mongolia. The Tacloban native eyes a bounce back where she could be meeting Raksat again in that quest for a gold medal as well as Chinese bet and reigning Olympic champion Wu Yu.
ALBERT IAN DELOS SANTOS
Delos Santos is fast becoming the heir apparent to Hidilyn Diaz as far as being the face of Philippine weightlifting is concerned. The 20-year-old has created a stir after setting world junior records and breaking them one after the other over the past couple of years.
Just last August, Delos Santos set two new world juniors record in the 70kg division, lifting 180 kilograms in the clean and jerk and 321 kilograms in the total.
Prior to the change in Olympic weight categories last August, Delos Santos was the world juniors record holder in the 71kg division when he lifted 187 kilograms last May in the World Juniors Championships.
This will be Delos Santos’ second multisport competition after he bagged a silver in the 2025 Southeast Asian Games with a lift of 186 kg in the clean and jerk, then a world juniors record, where he was beaten by Weeraphon Wichuma of Thailand, who set a world seniors record with a 195 in the clean and jerk and 347 total. Shortly after the silver, Diaz hailed Delos Santos as the future of Philippine weightlifting.
With his previous feats, Delos Santos is no longer afraid of the big stage that awaits in the Asiad, including the bright lights of the opening ceremony.
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