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Carlos Yulo wins gold to become Philippines' second Olympic champion

Carlos Yulo has become only the second Philippine athlete to become an Olympic champion after he won the gold medal in the artistic gymnastics men's floor event in Paris. Oscar Barroso/Europa Press via Getty Images

Carlos Yulo is now only the second Philippine athlete to become an Olympic champion after winning the gold medal in the artistic gymnastics men's floor event on Saturday.

His triumph marked Philippines' first medal at the current Games and he is also now the first Filipino gymnast to reach an Olympic podium.

Yulo's success comes three years after weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz made history in winning a historic first gold medal for the Southeast Asian nation.

Going third among the eight floor exercise competitors, Yulo captivated both the crowd and the judges with his spectacular routine. He earned a difficulty score of 6.600 -- the highest of the event -- and executed it flawlessly with an 8.400, culminating in an impressive total of 15.000.

The 24-year-old's achievement was all the more impressive given he had to see off defending champion Artem Dolgopyat of Israel -- with his score just ahead of the 2020 gold medalist's 14.966.

Yulo could yet give Philippines more reason to cheer as he vies for another medal in the vault final on Sunday at 10:24 p.m. PHT.

After a shaky start, pole vaulter EJ Obiena powered through the qualification round and earned a finals berth in the men's pole vault.

Obiena struggled at the start as he failed to clear 5.60 meters in his first two attempts -- leaving him one more chance to advance. But he would come up clutch by clearing both the 5.70 and 5.75 meter marks in just one try, which propelled him to the 7th spot out of the 12 qualifiers.

As expected, Sweden's world number one Armand Duplantis hardly broke a sweat and finished in first place.

Obiena will try to top his performance today and make the podium in the final round on Tuesday at 1 a.m. PHT.

In the boxing ring, Aira Villegas has guaranteed herself at least a bronze medal after seeing off local French favorite Wassila Lkhadiri via split decision to advance to the semifinals of the women's 50kg event.

However, Carlo Paalam's hopes of replicating a silver medal finish from three years ago will not become reality in the men's 57kg category, after he lost to Australia's Charlie Senior by points in split decision in the quarterfinals.

It was anybody's bout until the last second of the fight, with both boxers having two judges siding with them for the first and second rounds. Ultimately, a decisive final round swayed the remaining judge, tipping the scales in favor of the Australian and securing the hard-fought victory.