PH Assured of 3 More Olympic Medals as Paalam, Petecio, Marcial Dominate

UPDATE 1 (1:26 p.m. Philippine Time): Nesthy Petecio settles for the silver medal after losing the gold medal bout to hometown bet Sena Irie.

After Hidilyn Diaz won the Philippines’ first gold medal in the Olympics in 97-years of competing, the country has another milestone achieved as Carlo Paalam, Nesthy Petecio, and Eumir Marcial are now all assured of medals in the Olympics.

The Philippines now have four medals in the tally at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the most medals the country has ever won in history since the 1932 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles, California.

Winning gold medals are still possible, as Marcial and Paalam are still set to fight for the gold medals in their respective weight divisions.

Eumir Marcial is set to fight Oleksandr Khyzhniak of Ukraine in the semifinals on Thursday, August 5, 2:03 pm, Philippine time, where a win will assure the fighter from Zamboanga a silver medal.

Nesthy Petecio now settles for the silver medal after losing the gold medal bout against hometown bet Sena Irie in their Tokyo Olympics women’s featherweight fight at the Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo, Japan

Petecio is the first Filipino boxer to win the silver medal in 25 years since Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco Jr. won the silver medal in the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta, after losing the controversial gold medal bout against Bulgarian Daniel Petrov Bujilov in a 6-19 decision.

Nesthy Petecio is also the first Filipina boxer to ever win an Olympic medal.

Carlo Paalam is slated to fight for a spot in the gold medal match against Japan’s Ryomei Tanaka on Thursday at 1:30 p.m.

Paalam recently pulled off an upset against reigning Olympic champion Shakhobidin Zoirov, who the division to win gold for Uzbekistanin the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Another Pinoy vying for gold

Joining Marcial and Paalam in the quest for another gold medal for the Philippine is Ernest John Obiena, who is set to go for Olympic glory in the men’s pole vault finals tonight (August 3, 6:20 p.m.) at the Japan National Stadium. (GFB)