OLYMPIC HAT-TRICK: 3 PH athletes score wins in Tokyo Olympics

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

It was a good day for Philippine sports.

In just a span of three hours, the Philippines was once again well-represented in the Tokyo Olympics as three of our national athletes brought spectacular wins in pole vaulting and boxing.

EJ Obiena, the country’s bet in the men’s pole vault competition, successfully cleared his last and final attempt of the 5.75-meter mark to earn a spot in the final stage to be held on Tuesday.

The pole vaulter ranked 10^th in the final qualifying round and joined the 14-man pool that will vie for the coveted gold medal.

Meanwhile, in boxing, flyweight representative Carlo Paalam bade goodbye to Mohamed Flissi of Algeria to qualify for the men’s quarterfinals round.

It was an overpowering statement win for Paalam as the Filipino pug stacked the points in the scorecards and just outboxed Flissi for three straight rounds.

Last but not the least, Nesthy Petecio once again showed nerves of steel and pulled off a stunning come from behind win against Irma Testa of Italy to punch her ticket to the women’s featherweight finals.

Petecio was clearly behind after the first round as the Italian bet just took control of the bout using her long reach that disrupted Petecio’s offensive flow.

However, soon as the Petecio camp did their major adjustments in the second round, everything just fell into place and favored the Filipina who just cut through the distance and pummeled the Italian at will.

Petecio’s victory will assure the Philippines of either another gold medal after Hidilyn Diaz or a silver medal finish.

After the triple victory, the whole country began to explode with joy as everybody just went laser-focused to their televisions and live streams to witness the greatness of the PH athletes.

After a good day, greater days will be coming for Philippine Sports if another podium finish will be achieved.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!