Reward 5 Golden Girls profusely

THE gold medal from weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz was no surprise. If she could lift silver in the 2016 Rio Olympiad, then gold in the “easier” Asian Games would weigh lighter as a feather. Only the insane doubted.

But how about the victories of golfers Yuka Saso, Bianca Pagdanganan and LK Go?

And that of Margielyn Didal in women’s street skateboarding?

Saso was four shots down going to the final round. If it were basketball, that deficit would have amounted to 20 points going to the last quarter.

Not only that. With one hole left, Saso was still down by two strokes after she double-bogeyed 17.

If her rally had faltered, it would not have pained her, shattered the nation’s pride. After all, Saso is only 17 years old.

But no. Saso resurrected herself from the grave by boldly blasting a devil-may-care 4-iron, 210yard shot to the fringe of the par-5 18th.

After meticulously studying her line of putt, putting premium on how her ball would navigate the blades of grass leading to the hole, Saso would bang home the 18-footer for the tournament’s only eagle to win the gold running away.

It helped that Saso’s Chinese foe practically self-destructed in the final hole, the so-called Great Wall crumbling with a bizarre nine to lose everything that she built in her first 71 holes.

With Saso’s gold-winning, final-day six-underpar 66 that was

likewise brilliantly xeroxed by Pagdanganan, the Philippines also garnered the team gold for a rare sweep of the Asiad’s women’s golf competitions.

Some three days later, Didal, the 19-year-old daughter of a carpenter from Cebu and of a mother that cooks/sells fried “kwek kwek (dayold chicks)” on the sidewalks, came up with her stunning skateboarding feat to make it a fourgold haul by five intrepid women from our entourage of 272 entered in 31 disciplines in the quadrennial Games.

Their wins made them instant millionaires as a gold medal is worth P6 million. A jubilant President Duterte had hinted giving our Golden Girls some more. And why not?

Just right. Always, hard work that produces world honors for the country must be rewarded promptly, profusely. Non-debatable.