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| Headlined by Carlos Yulo's two golds, Week 1 was a blast for the Philippine team in the Paris Olympics. Reuters (file photo) |
[UPDATE AS OF 10.30AM, AUGUST 8, 2024]
MANILA--During the past weekend, the 22-man Philippine Centennial Team created historic and memorable scenes as the Philippines hauled four medals in the 2024 Paris Olympics, thanks to Carlos Yulo, Nesthy Petecio, and Aira Villegas.
This now ties in their 4-medal finish in the Tokyo Olympics contributed by the weightlifting gem Hidilyn Diaz and legendary pugs Eumir Marcial, Carlo Paalam, and Petecio.
Leading to this historic equalizer is "Golden Boy" Yulo, who won two gold medals in two straight days as the 24-year-old scored 15.00 points in his impressive routine during the finals of floor exercise last Saturday night while he marked a convincing 15.433 points on his finals stint at vault, Sunday evening.
With the back-to-back medals garnered, the Philippines entered its relevance in the latest Medal Tally placing 24th as of Thursday.
Importantly, Yulo single-handedly lifted the Philippines to the 3rd spot in the overall rankings of the Olympic Artistic Gymnastics tying with Japan who both possessed two gold medals, and the United States hailed as champions earning three gold and five bronze medals.
Then, the two remaining boxers gave the country's two bronze medals after Buse Naz Cakiroglu of Turkey won over Villegas on 50kg. semifinals and the youngster Julia Szeremeta of Poland beat Petecio in the 57kg. semifinals also.
The chance to beat the Philippines' medal finish last Tokyo Games continues to slim with only 4 athletes left in the competition.
EJ Obiena was shy away from podium finish in the Pole Vault finals only settled for fourth place, big improvement from his 11th finish last three years in Tokyo, while Laureen Hoffman and John Cabang failed to proceed to the next round in their hurdles competition left the national's Athletics team haul none of the medals.
Also, weightlifters Vanessa Sarno and Elreen Ando will now be sent in their gold medal bid after John Ceniza eliminated and golfers Bianca Pagdanganan and Dottie Ardina started their golf campaign Wednesday.
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