Flyweight Carlo Paalam advanced to the Olympic gold medal in boxing as he outboxed Japanese opponent Ryomie Tanaka get a unanimous decision at the Kokugikan Arena on Thursday.

But middleweight Eumir Marcial, who won his previous bouts by the short route, fell to Oleksandr Khyzhniak of the Ukraine, in a semifinal bout as the Philippines missed putting two boxers in the final for the first time in the Olympics.

Paalam’s assured silver is the third medal for the four-man boxing team after Nesthy Petecio’s loss to in the women’s featherweight final and a bronze from Marcial.

The assured silver of Paalam and bronze of Marcial is the country’s fourth Olympic medal, the highest in its 97 years of participating in the Olympics.

Hidilyn Diaz won the country’s first gold in women’s weightlifting, Petecio and Paalam a silver and a bronze from Marcial.

In women’s golf, Bianca Pagdanganan finished 27th place with a par 71 to be two under for the tournament and 11 shots behind leader Nelly Korda of the US.

Yuka Saso had a 68 for 34th place and 13 shots off the lead.

The swifter Paalam landed 1-2 combinations and backpedalled from trouble for a 5-0 verdict.

” That was my strategy, to use my speed,” said Paalam.

In the middle of the second round, Tanaka hit Paalam at the back of his head, but he clung to his foe to regain his bearings.

Paalam said the referee may have not seen the blow because of the swift exchanges.

On August 7, Paalam clashes with Great Britain’s Galal Yafai, who 15 minutes earlier edged Paalam’s  tormentor Saken Bibossinov of Kazakhstan in a 3-2 split decision win.

Marcial admitted he lost to a better fighter.

“He is a strong fighter. He deserves to win,” said Marcial of Khyzhniak, who won gold medals at the 2017 world  championship and 2017 and 2019 European tournaments.

The Philippine team’s  Australian consultant, Don Abnett, said Marcial lost steam.

“He  only had six weeks training with us, although his Colorado (Springs) training helped him a lot,” Abnett said.

Marcial turned pro in September last year and trained for four months under  renowned trainer Freddie Roach at the Wild Cary Gym.

He won his first professional fight, a four-rounder, in December, but hasn’t fought a single bout until last May’s Asian championships in Dubai.

After one bout, Marcial joined a training camp with the US boxing team in Colorado Springs. DMS