Olympian Daniel Caluag became a champion in the Asian Games when he bagged the first, and so far the only, gold medal for the Philippines in BMX cycling on Wednesday.

 

But two days before he flew to Incheon, South Korea, Caluag received an even greater blessing when his wife gave birth to their daughter Sydney Isabella.

 

"It was a 24-hour labor with three-and-a-half hours of pushing, ultimately to just the C-section," the new father said in an interview on "Unang Hirit" on Friday.

 

 

"But my wife and my new daughter are healthy."

 

But duty called, and Caluag soon had to leave his two-day-old daughter to compete in the Asian Games. The win made the trip worth it.

 

"It's an honor to win a gold medal for the Philippines," Caluag said. "You know, just uplifting the spirits of the Philippines around here in the country.

 

"Just to show that Filipinos could do it everywhere, you know, on the world stage, and whatever they put their mind into."

 

Registered nurse

 

Caluag, who also donned the country's colors in the 2012 London Olympics, is a actually registered nurse by profession.

 

"It was something I really wanted to do, my mother's a nurse, my dad's a registered therapist. It was a direction I wanted to do 'cause I saw it all the time," Caluag said.

 

He got involved in BMX riding after biking with kids in his hometown Los Angeles, California.

 

"They told me, "Let's go to BMX track." And so I went to BMX track, had a lot of fun, and I started doing well." — Marisse Panaligan/JST, GMA News