Manny Pacquiao has chosen to exit Physical: Asia, leaving on Episode 5 of the show’s first season.
“Gusto kong humingi ng paumanhin,” Pacquiao said towards the end of the episode. “Kailangan kong bumalik sa bansa ko, kasi may mga obligation ko for the country.” The welterweight champion went on to apologize to his team on the show for leaving early. He also stressed how proud he was to have been the team’s captain and how he continues to worry about what comes next for the team in the challenges to come.
Immediately after Pacquiao’s departure, Justin Coveney took over as Team Philippines’ captain, while Justin Hernandez replaced Pacquiao’s spot. Hernandez is the first Filipino male athlete to compete at the CrossFit Games and is a four-time CrossFit Open national champion. While the Filipino athletes didn’t visibly show a reaction to Pacquiao’s departure as they entered the mainstage with Hernandez, team members from other countries commented on PacMan’s absence and wondered about Hernandez’s place on the team. “Everyone looks like they’re sizing us up,” Hernandez joked as he took his seat at Team Philippines’ table.
Physical: Asia, the first spin-off of the hit South Korean competition series, Physical: 100, sees teams representing eight different countries compete against one another in a series of physically gruelling challenges in order to take home the prize of 1 billion Korean won (roughly P40,600,000 at the time of writing).
With Pacquiao gone, Team Philippines now consists of Coveney as team leader, Hernandez, MMA fighter Mark “Mugen” Striegl, rugby player Justin Coveney, strongman Ray Jefferson Querubin, Olympic athlete Robyn Lauren Brown, and CrossFit athlete Lara Liwanag.
ERRATUM: A previous version of this article stated that Justin Hernandez took over the captainship after Pacquiao’s exit. This article has been updated to reflect that it was Justin Coveney who became the Team Philippines captain.
