TABUAN CHAMPIONS POWERLIFTING IN PH

(UPDATE) JESSA Mae Tabuan brought pride to the Philippines after racking up six gold medals and two silvers in the 2025 Asian Juniors Powerlifting Championships and Asian University Cup in India.

The first-year criminology student of Jose Rizal University shared that, beyond the medals, her real achievement is promoting the sport of powerlifting in the country.

"My main goal is to increase the recognition of the sport (powerlifting). Fortunately, it's already well-known in many other countries. Here in the Philippines, we're also very grateful for the opportunities to compete internationally," she said during the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Hour interview.

Tabuan expressed how tough and rigorous her training prior to the competition was, especially since she is going against powerhouse teams Russia and India.

"It's really difficult. Of course, there is no such thing as easy, but the training plus balancing my academics is tough. We had three months to prepare, and I understood that I was not representing my team but the whole nation, too," she said.

"There are Russians and other European teams like Poland, and they are strong, too. During the competition, it is us, India, and Russia, exchanging our places on the podium," she added.

For the Filipino powerlifter, the real challenge for the team is not just the physicality of the sport alone, but the mental aspect.

"All are really tough mentally. I know that all of us (Filipino powerlifters) are strong physically, but the doubts during our lifts are one thing. For me, personally, the real challenge is the thoughts in my head, but I just do what my coach said, and put on my faith every lift," she said.

Tabuan bagged four golds in the Classic Junior women's 52-kilograms, and two golds and two silvers in the equipped division.

She shattered the Asian record in the equipped division after adding.5 kg. The previous record was 105 kg in 2014.

2025-05-18T16:18:06Z