Macario credited coaches Rani Ortega and Jeordan Dominguez for preparing him for the event.
“Ang focus po namin is ibigay and i-perform kung ano po ‘yung pinag-trainingan namin ng matagal. And si Lord na po ‘yung bahala kung ano ‘yung ibigay niya po sa amin. Sobrang thankful at binigay niya ‘yung ginto sa akin (Our focus was to perform exactly what we trained hard for. We left the rest to the Lord, and I’m very thankful he gave me this gold),” he said.
Visibly ecstatic after winning his first individual SEA Games medal, Macario said skipping Tuesday’s opening ceremony allowed him to train four times that day and fine-tune his routine.
“Sinacrifice na namin po na hindi pumunta sa opening para makapag-prepare ng maayos po (We sacrificed going to the opening so we could prepare well),” he said.
Macario previously won silver and bronze in mixed freestyle poomsae in the 2021 and 2023 SEA Games. Although he has medaled in both the Asian and World Championships, he said this victory feels different.
“Ibang-iba din po kasi mostly lahat din ng mga nagpo-podium po sa World Championship, Asian Championship, itong mga SEA Games countries din po (It’s a different level here because most of the athletes who podium in the World and Asian Championships also come from SEA Games countries),” he said.
Thailand’s Koedkaew Atchariya took silver with 8.100 points, while Malaysia’s Ken Haw Chin settled for bronze with 7.740.
Macario returns to action Wednesday afternoon in the mixed team freestyle poomsae event.
Earlier in the day, John Derrick Farr clinched the country’s first medal of the Games, a bronze in the men’s downhill mountain bike event in Chonburi. PR
