Riding Rustic Rouge and carrying just a slim chance of winning the gold, the charming 28-year-old Mikee, a Cojuangco married to a Jaworski, took the ride of her life to nail the individual showjumping gold at the sun-blessed Busan equestrian grounds.
Even Mikee, who gave birth to a second child only last December, couldn’t believe that she had won the gold although she was seen celebrating, throwing her left hand into the air and flashing her bedimpled smile the moment she cleared the white obstacle for the final jump of the Asian Games.
"Actually, hindi kami makapaniwala. We just wanted to do our best tapos kung ano ang ipagkaloob yun ang makukuha. Siyempre masaya ako. Obviously, today was our day," said Mikee, who’s been in this port city since the 18th of September.
All the hard work, plus the fact that she had to leave her family behind, did pay off for Mikee, who, from now on, will not only be remembered as a Cojuangco or a Jaworski or a pretty actress, but also an Asian Games gold medalist and a true Filipino champion.
Mikee’s victory over a South Korean rider in the final jumpoff came on the 31st birthday of husband Dodot and, more importantly, gave the Philippines its third gold in the quadrennial event that gathered close to 11,000 athletes from 44 nations.
It was the first individual gold for the Philippines which banked on the doubles pairs of Paeng Nepomuceno and RJ Bautista in bowling and Francisco "Django" Bustamante and Antonio Lining in 9-ball billiards to win the first two.
The Philippines also had seven silvers and 16 bronzes for a total of 26 precious medals, a marked improvement from its 1-5-12 take during the Bangkok Asian Games four years ago. The last time the Filipinos won three gold medals was at the 1990 Asiad in Hiroshima, all of them coming in boxing.
"Itong campaign natin ended on a very happy note. We had the same number of gold medals in Hiroshima pero mas marami tayong silver ngayon," said Philippine Olympic Committee president Celso Dayrit who watched from the stands as Mikee took a victory ride on the 300-meter course, riding her Australian thoroughbred and waving a Philippine flag.
Mikee’s father, former Congressman Jose – now the RP equestrian president, was there, too, looking so thrilled, so happy and so proud as her daughter was being hugged and congratulated by teammates Toni Leviste, Michelle Barrera and Danielle Cojuangco near the podium.
The only other Filipino athletes who competed on the final day didn’t even come close to a medal with Roy Vence finishing eighth and Allan Ballester 10th in men’s marathon.
Vence clocked 2:28.51 while Ballester timed 2:32.12 and were both way behind their best times.
The silver medalists for the Philippines were Warren Kiamco in billiards; Harry Tanamor in boxing; CJ Suarez, Botchok Rey and Chester King in trios bowling; Liza del Rosario, Irene Benitez, Josephine Canare, Liza Clutario and Kathlynn Ann Lopez in bowling’s team of five; Marvin Sicomen (52kg) and Rexel Nganhayna (56kg) in sanshou wushu; and the RP equestrian riders in the team event.
At the end of the competition, the Philippines stood in 18th place in the medal standings behind neighbors Thailand (14-19-10), Malaysia (6-8-16), Singapore (5-2-10), Indonesia (4-7-12) and Vietnam (4-7-7).
China, of course, ran away with 150 of the 420 gold medals disputed, but missing on the one that was theirs for a long, long time – men’s basketball.