One of the most amazing moments of the 2019 SEA Games was when Roger Casugay, a surfer from the Philippines, sacrificed his gold medal just to save an Indonesian competitor from drowning.
Casugay is now being hailed as a hero in his home country and within the surfer community in South East Asia after he gave away the chance of winning a gold medal to stop Arhip Nurhidayat, his competitor from Indonesia, from drowning.
Arhip was surfing when he lost control of his board to the waves during a surfing event when Roger Casugay came to rescue him.
Roger saved him from extreme rolling waves and shared a single surfboard as they rode to the beach to safety.
Upon their return, Arhip held the hand of Roger and declared him the champion of the event.
After the incident, the event was postponed.
The United Philippine Surfing Association has congratulated Casugay for his kind act where he saved his fellow competitor from sustaining life-threatening injuries.
The association called the incident “Sportsmanship at its finest!”
The kind gesture of the surfer went viral on social media.
Here are some of the comments people made on Twitter:
Surfing has been one of the worst-hit sports at the 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines due to typhoon Kammuri.
The surfing event has been delayed 3 times due to harsh weather.
Organizers of the SEA 2019 Games are making sure the surfers, judges, and spectators can watch the event safely.