Team Philippines wins TARA 4!

CONGRATULATIONS to Richard Herrera and Richard Hardin (aka the Two Richards) for winning Season 4 of The Amazing Race Asia (TARA). Woot-woot! (Details here.)

While they were not my favorite Philippine team - I was rooting more for Jessy and Lani – the Two Richards showed they had the best blend of brains and brawn to win this race. I kept on screaming and clapping my hands as I cheered them on to their win tonight. But it was pretty clear at the onset of the episode they were going to be victorious because they just looked so determined.

As the episode began with a flight from Incheon to Singapore, the closest competitor of the Two Richards was the father-daughter team of Natasha and Hussein from Indonesia. Although they ended up in third place, I just have to tip my hat to Hussein, who was really such a cool dad for even agreeing to this race with his daughter. I'm sorry I really never liked her. It seemed that she kept on making her Dad do all the most difficult tasks, one of them at the coconut trees even leading to some mild injury. I feel so sorry for Hussein for having such a brat of a daughter. But there is no shame in ending in third place bec. he was really such a trooper.

And because he had such difficulty accomplishing the tight-rope task of the race in this episode, Michelle and Claire from Singapore - previously in last place having left 10 hours behind all the other teams, overtook the Indonesian team to win second place. They're the youngest team ever to compete in TARA and it was their spunkiness that helped them to hang in the race.

But all teams were actually super competitive, and each episode sprang a new surprise on the audience in terms of the level of difficulty (or downright trickiness) of the challenges, the wonderful destinations the teams traveled to, and insights into the behavior of each team member.

With the recent victory of Manny Pacquiao at the boxing ring, and the Azkals making such a good showing in the Suzuki Cup, this win by Team Philippines in TARA is just the icing on the cake for the country! While we may not be doing so great in our political and economic landscape, at least we're getting our kicks in the sports and entertainment arena. Congratulations again to the Two Richards! Mabuhay!