Carlo Paalam assured of Olympic medal

Another Filipino athlete is sure to take home a medal from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics-this time, in the field of boxing again.

Filipino boxer Carlo Paalam defeated reigning Olympic champion Shakhobidin Zoirov (Uzbekistan), which is why he went straight to the semifinals on Thursday. Because of this, bronze is the lowest Paalam can get.

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He and Zoirov accidentally hit each other’s head during the quarterfinals, but he said that was okay, he said his head was hard, which was one of the reasons why the fight was stopped.

“Umi-istraight ako ng tiyan eh kasi tinatarget ko yung body niya. Kasi magaling siya sa ulo magmove,” Carlo Paalam said in One Sports interview after the fight.

“So [yung katawan] yung part na suntukin ko, ayun nagkasalungat kami. Kasi umi-straight din siya… Matigas lang talaga ulo ko nasugatan siya sa ulo.”

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Both were bloody after the accidental headbutt.

Even though the match was called off and there was 1:16 left in round two, the four jurors gave him enough points to win the match.

Carlo Paalam assured of Olympic medal

As a result, the Philippines will certainly have four medals in the 2021 Olympics – the most in history since it joined in 1924.

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Three of the sure medals for the Philippines will come from boxing.

Paalam will face Ryomei Tanaka of Japan on Thursday for the semifinal set, hoping to take home silver or gold.

Carlo Paalam then joined the Philippine national team in 2013 and started competing at the international level. He took home bronze medals at the AIBA Youth Asian and World Championships in 2016 and the Asian Games in 2018. He took part in the 2017 Southeast Asian Games in Malaysia but did not win a medal.

He bagged gold medals in the ASTANA/President’s Cup in Kazakhstan in 2017, the 10th AIBA International Boxing Tournament, and the 1st Thailand International Boxing Tournament in 2018.

In 2019, he took home his first Southeast Asian Games gold medal at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, hosted at home in the Philippines.

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