THE Philippines is in line to finish in the top 30 of the Olympic medal tally for the first time in 57 years, with the country in contention for a second gold.
Carlo Paalam will battle for the gold medal on Saturday in the men’s flyweight category against Galal Yafai of Great Britain. Paalam will look to follow the path of weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz and stamp the success of the Philippine campaign in the Tokyo Olympics.

Currently, the Philippines is 49th in the medal tally with one gold, one silver, and one bronze medals – the other two medals coming from boxers Nesthy Petecio (silver) and Eumir Marcial (bronze). And if there will be no significant changes in the medal tally, there is a possibility that it can jump to 30th with a win by Paalam.
The Philippines has not finished inside the top 30 since 1964 when the country won one silver medal courtesy of boxer Anthony Villanueva. Incidentally, the Games were also held in Tokyo.
Since then, the Philippines placed 46th in 1988 in Seoul (0-0-1 gold-silver-bronze), 53rd in 1992 in Barcelona (0-0-1), 61st in 1996 in Atlanta (0-1-1), and 69th in 2016 in Rio De Janeiro (0-1-0).

The Philippines’ best finish in the Olympics was in 1932 in Los Angeles where the country placed 25th after three bronzes courtesy of swimmer Teofilo Yldefonso, high jumper Simeon Toribio, and boxer Jose Villanueva.
The country was at No. 32 during the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics and No. 30 in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Luka Doncic stands in way of Team PH's Top 30 quest
One of the countries that stand in the way for that top-30 finish for the Philippines is Slovenia, which sits on that spot as of this writing with a 2-1-1 count.
A gold by one of its athletes in sport climbing on Friday night and/or a bronze by their Luca Doncic-led basketball team over Australia on Saturday will definitely improve its rankings in the medal tally.
Ecuador (2-1-0), Greece (2-0-1), Uzbekistan (2-0-1), Kosovo (2-0-0), and Qatar (2-0-0) are the other countries that also have two gold medals at the moment.
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