By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The Philippine delegation had all the reasons to celebrate after capping off their Paris Olympics campaign with their best finish since joining the Global Summer Games.
After the official medal tally, the PHL delegation finished with a record of 37th place, besting its previous place during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics where they ended up in 50th place.
All thanks to Carlos Yulo’s twin gold medals in the men’s artistic gymnastics event that boosted the country’s chance of entering the top 40 best sporting nations in the Olympics.
Yulo, who redeemed himself in Paris after a forgettable campaign four years ago in Tokyo, showcased what he is really capable of after winning his first gold medal in the floor exercise event.
A day after joining Hidilyn Diaz as the only Filipinos to win gold in the Olympics, the Filipino gymnast rewrote the history books after becoming the first athlete from the PHL to clinch back-to-back golds.
Yulos achieved his dream by putting up a flawless routine in the vault category, scoring a total of 15.116 points that proved to be enough to deliver a second gold for the PHL.
The judges gave Yulo a score of 14.800 in the second vault, edging Artur Davytan of Armenia who won the silver medal and Harry Hepworth of Britain who brought home the bronze.
Meanwhile, the PHL boxing team also made waves in Paris as Aira Villegas and Nesthy Petecio nabbed a pair of bronze medals in their respective weight classes.
Villegas had a great run in the women’s flyweight category as she reached the semifinal round before losing to Turkey’s Buse Naz Cakiroglu via a 5-0 unanimous decision.
On the other hand, Petecio fell short of a gold medal this year and settled for a bronze after falling at the hands of Polish rising star Julia Szeremeta,
Despite back-to-back bronze finishes for the PHL boxing team, the squad still replicated its tremendous campaign in Tokyo where they also capped off the Olympics with several podium finishes.
Other notable athletes close to adding medals for the PHL were EJ Obiena in the men’s pole vault and Bianca Pagdanganan in the women’s golf event.
Mabuhay ang atletang Pilipino!
