MANILA, Philippines — With two gold medals and a bronze, the Philippines kept its 22nd ranking on Wednesday ahead of its Southeast Asian neighbors on the Olympic team leaderboard.
The Philippines leapt from 31st to 21st place on the medal chart of the Paris Olympics on Monday when gymnast Carlos Yulo won back-to-back gold medals for men’s floor exercise and vault competitions, before moving down a place on Tuesday.
It was Brazil, now ranking 17th, that climbed up in rank after gymnast Rebecca Andrade secured a gold medal, beating U.S. record holder Simone Biles for the women’s floor exercise on Tuesday. Earlier this month, Beatriz Souza earned the first gold for Team Brazil for Judo. Brazil has 13 medals so far.
Filipino boxer Aira Villegas, meanwhile, earned a bronze medal at the women’s 50-kg semifinals early Wednesday.
Team Philippines is guaranteed at least another bronze medal from boxer Nesthy Petecio in the women’s featherweight division. She is set to face Julia Szeremeta of Poland early on Thursday for the semifinals.
Leader of the bloc
The Philippines’ 22nd rank is ahead of other members of the Southeast Asian bloc on the leaderboard. It is only trailed by Thailand at 55th place with its silver and gold medals.
Since the chart ranks teams based on gold medals before counting silver and bronze prizes, the Philippines is also ahead of teams from developed countries such as Spain (26th), Denmark (33rd) and Norway (42nd).
READ: Southeast Asian countries rally behind Philippines as it leads Olympics leaderboard in region
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