At A Glance
- The mentor and mentee tandem of Jericho Francisco Jr. and 11-year-olds Mazel Paris Alegado and Elizabeth Amador took the spotlight for the Philippine extreme sports team as they swept the park skateboarding events in the 33rd Southeast Asian Games at the Sports Authority of Thailand Extreme Sports Park on Saturday, Dec. 13.
BANGKOK — Like teacher, like student.
The mentor and mentee tandem of Jericho Francisco Jr. and 11-year-olds Mazel Paris Alegado and Elizabeth Amador took the spotlight for the Philippine extreme sports team as they swept the park skateboarding events in the 33rd Southeast Asian Games at the Sports Authority of Thailand Extreme Sports Park on Saturday, Dec. 13.
It was a surreal feeling for Francisco as he shared the stage with his students in Alegado and Amador, who finished 1-2 in the women’s park skateboarding.
“I can't believe it to be honest with you. I can't believe it to be here with the gold medal and my students here with the gold medal also and the silver also," said Francisco after ruling the men’s side with a score of 90.68 points.
Now a back-to-back gold medalist in the Games, Francisco said sharing the stage with her student makes the win extra special.
“Yes (it makes the victory sweeter). I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it," added Francisco who is also a skateboarding instructor in his own school.
And there was no doubt that Francisco was a great teacher with his students following his footsteps at such a young age.
The young athletes impressed with the acrobatics and daredevil tricks to impress the judges with Alegado scoring 79.72 points while Amador had 72.03.
Francisco, who credited Filipina skateboarder and Asian Games gold medalist Margielyn Didal for his interest in the sport, is hoping that the victories would open more opportunities for Filipino skateboarders considering the amount of talent they have.
"It just shows that us Filipinos can do it and we can be on top. No matter if we have limited resources or not, we can do it. And we can compete with the best," Francisco said.