LUCKY SEVEN?: Breaks of the game doom Team Phl chances

The euphoria is far from over as the Filipinos continue to celebrate their best performance in the Olympics with two gold and two bronze medals.

But for Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, Team Philippines could have done better than four medals.

“We could have gotten seven medals,” Tolentino said in a public forum on Friday morning in San Juan.

The POC chief appears spot on.

Although gymnast Carlos Yulo made history after winning two gold medals — the first ever in the Filipinos’ 100 years of participation in the Summer Games — and boxers Aira Villegas and Nesthy Petecio punched bronze medals after advancing to the semifinals of their respective events, luck still refused to roll off their way that doomed their chances of adding to their medal haul.

Ernest John Obiena, for one, could have won a medal had he cleared the 5.95-meter barrier. Instead, he tallied only 5.90 meters to finish outside the medal circle behind world record-holder Armand Duplantis of Sweden, Sam Kendricks of the United States and Emmanouil Karalis of Greece, whom he had already beaten in the past.

Same goes for boxer Carlo Paalam and golfer Bianca Pagdanganan.

Paalam, a silver medalist in the Tokyo Games, was said to be a victim of unfair officiating in his men’s 57-kilogram quarterfinal match against Charlie Senior of Australia.

Three of the five judges favored the hard-punching Pacific Games champion while only two decided in favor of Paalam, reducing the Filipino into a huge mass of tears after one of the most tightly-fought matches in the Summer Games.

Pagdanganan, for his part, was already on her way to an Olympic medal after closing with a sizzling 4-under 68.

But Xiyu Janet Lin of China birdied the 18th to close with a 3-under 69 for a 281 total that awarded her the bronze medal.

“EJ (Obiena) already defeated those guys and he and Duplantis are the only pole vaulters who made it over six meters,” said Tolentino, who was cheering at the sidelines as action was unfolding.

“Carlo Paalam was one judge away. Even the officials knew that he could have won the match on points.”

Still, the POC chief remains proud of the Filipinos’ performance after they emerged as the top Southeast Asian country in the Olympics for the second straight time.

They also wound up as the seventh-best in Asia and 37th in the world, a massive improvement to the 50th-place finish in Tokyo three years ago.

“For two consecutive Olympics, we are proud to be the best Southeast Asian country. We got three gold medals under my term (as POC president),” Tolentino said.