WITH ONLY a few weeks left before the Tokyo Olympics, the Philippines is sending 19 athletes (as of July 2, 2021) hoping to bring home the country’s first gold medal.
Among the 19 Filipino athletes are nine male athletes who will try to clinch the country’s first gold medal playing for boxing, rowing, gymnastics, taekwondo, shooting, golf, swimming, and the potential gold in pole vault.
(If you want to get to know the 10 female athletes in the Philippine delegation, click the article below.)
Now, meet the male athletes who will compete for the country’s first gold medal in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
EJ Obiena
The “pole vault king” is said to have a very good shot at winning the gold medal for the Philippines in the summer games.
The 25-year-old pole vaulter from Tondo, Manila is the first Filipino to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. He booked his slot way back in 2019 during the pole vault meet in Ciara Piazza, Italy after clearing the Olympic standard 5.80 meters.
The former UST trackster has been training in Italy since 2019 and has been competing in tourneys.
During the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, Obiena cleared 5.45 meters for a pole vault gold, breaking the previous record set by Thailand’s Porranot Purahong during the 2017 SEA Games.
This year, Obiena shattered the national record for outdoor pole vaulting thrice. The first happened in February, during the Internationales Stadionfest Indoor athletics meet in Berlin, Germany. Obiena vaulted over the 5.80 meter mark, leaping past the record he set last January of this year.
A week after Berlin, he eclipsed the PH record anew after clearing 5.86 meters during the Orlen Indoor Cup 2021 in Poland — but only got to bag silver in three attempts.
The record he set in the Poland tilt not only broke the PH books, but also set a new record in Asia for the highest leaper since 2005.
Just recently, Obiena surpassed the PH record again during the Irena Szewińska Memorial 2021 in Bydgoszcz, Poland, clearing 5.87 meters. He again finished silver after failing to leap 5.92 meters.
Obiena was able to beat reigning Olympic gold medalist Thiago Braz twice at Sweden — at the Gothenburg Athletics Grand Prix on June 3, and again at the 2021 Taby Stavhoppsgala Street Pole Vault a month after.
During the True Athletes Classics in Leverkusen, Germany, Obiena and Braz tied for gold after clearing 5.80 meters.
Obiena earned a spot in the 2021 Bauhaus-Galan Wanda Diamond League Meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, but came home empty handed after clearing 5.82 meters.
Both Obiena and Braz are training under Ukranian pole vault coach Vitaly Petrov in Formia, Italy.
Carlos Yulo
The 4-foot-9 gymnast is the second Filipino to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics after bagging gold in the 2019 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, making him the first male athlete in the Southeast Asian region to win in the tourney.
During the Southeast Asian Games 2019, Yulo bagged two gold medals and five silver medals for the Philippines.
He has been training in Japan for four years under coach Munehiro Kugimiya. He learned Japanese and studied at Teikyo University where his coach works as an assistant professor.
Eumir Marcial
Marcial qualified for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics during the 2020 Asia and Oceania Olympic Boxing Qualifiers in Amman, Jordan — the first Filipino boxer to do so.
In the same tournament, boxer Irish Magno would also earn her Olympic slot.
Earlier, at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, Marcial bagged bronze after losing to Uzbekistan’s Israil Madrimov via split decision.
A year later, at the 2019 SEA Games, the Butuan boxer defended his title in the middleweight division during the 2019 Southeast Asian Games via knockout against Vietnamese Manh Cuong Nguyen in one round.
This year, Marcial nabbed a bronze medal in the 2021 Asian Elite Men's and Women's Boxing Championships in Dubai.
Marcial also briefly courted controversy this year after complaining about a lack of government support on social media as he trained on his own in Zamboanga City. (The rest of the national team was training in Thailand.)
Carlo Paalam
Like fellow boxer Nesthy Petecio, Paalam qualified for the Olympics by world rankings in his category.
At the time, Paalam ranked 12 in the men’s flyweight division rankings.
The 22-year-old boxer started his career at the age of 12. In 2016, he bagged a bronze medal in the ASBC Asian Confederation Youth Boxing Championships in Kazakhstan making it his first international tournament with a medal.
In the same year, Paalam participated in the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships in Russia, where he bagged a bronze medal.
During the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia’s capital, the Pinoy boxer from Bukidnon bowed down to Amit Panghal and settled for bronze, as the game went the Indian boxer’s way via split decision, 3-2.
In the 2019 SEAG, Paalam bagged his first gold medal of his career, bouncing back from his loss at the 2017 edition of the biennial competition. Carlo bested Indonesia’s Kornelis Langu via unanimous decision in the boxing men’s light flyweight division.
Cris Nievarez
Nievarez rowed his way to the Olympics after qualifying by virtue of continental qualification regattas, where he ranks at number nine.
Nievarez is the first Pinoy Rower to qualify for the Olympics since Benjie Tolentino at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
In the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, the rower from Atimonan, Quezon snagged gold on his SEA Games debut in the lightweight single sculls event against Siripong Chaiwichitchonkul of Thailand after completing seven minutes and 34.27 seconds of the 2000-meter race.
Kurt Barbosa
Barbosa qualified for the Olympics in dramatic fashion after winning in the 2021 Asian Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament in Amman, Jordan against hometown bet Zaid Al-Halawani, 50-49, in the men’s -58kg category semifinals.
In the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, Barbosa dominated the game against Indonesia’s Reinaldy Atmanegara, 26-10, in the men’s -54kg finweight category, handily winning a gold.
Back in 2018, the 21-year-old jin from Abra was hailed MVP and Rookie of the year in taekwondo of the UAAP season 81 representing his school, National University.
Jayson Valdez
The Olympic-bound shooter will try to aim for a gold medal in Tokyo after being qualified to play in the 10-meter air rifle event.
Valdez was given a quota slot by the International Shooting Sports Federation adding a shooter to the PH delegation for the summer games in Tokyo.
The 25-year-old shooter debuted in the Southeast Asian Games 2010 in Guangzhou, China, but failed to make the podium. During the Southeast Asian Games 2015 in Singapore, Valdez took home bronze.
During the nation’s hosting of the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, Valdez once again failed to clinch a model.
Valdez is the first Filipino shooter to qualify in the Olympics since the 2012 London Olympics. In the current delegation for Tokyo, Valdez is the 12th Filipino athlete to qualify for the Games.
Juvic Pagunsan
The golf multi-title holder qualified to play in the summer games in Tokyo via world rankings, where Pagunsan sits within the top 15 quota.
Just two month ago, Pagunsan won the 2021 Mizuno Open in Japan and bagged the prize money, the equivalent of P5.2M.
His win secured a spot in the 2021 British Open in England, but Pagunsan elected to drop it after hearing the news about his qualification for the Olympics.
In 2007, he won his first title in the Pertamina Indonesia President Invitational in Indonesia, then in the same year won in Negri Masters in Malaysia.
At 43, Pagunsan is the oldest athlete in the PH delegation to Tokyo.
Luke Gebbie
Making it into the Philippines’ final 19, Fil-Kiwi swimmer Gebbie qualified along with Remedy Rule via world rankings.
Gebbie, who is based in Melbourne, Australia, garnered 795 FINA points in the men’s 50-meter freestyle where he erased his own national record of 22.62 to 22.57 seconds that he set during the 30th Southeast Asian Games.
In 2019, the 24-year-old swimmer bagged silver in the men’s 4x100-meter freestyle relay of the World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea where he garnered 828 FINA points and set a new national record of 49.94 seconds.
During the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, Gebbie shattered a decade-long record after clocking 24.34 seconds in the 50-km butterfly.
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