TOO bad, no one will give Ms. Hidilyn Diaz company for the time being in the pantheon of the greatest of greats.

In the biggest fight of his young career, in the grandest stage of them all, Carlo Paalam came up short, breaking the heart of an expectant nation longing for another gold medal like crazy on Saturday afternoon in the boxing competitions of the Tokyo Olympics at the Kokugikan Arena.

Stung by solid punches thrown in bunches that sent him down, Paalam absorbed a 1-4 split decision from the hands of veteran Galal Yafai of Great Britain in a flyweight gold medal bout ending the most prolific campaign ever by Team Philippines since it began competing in the Olympic Games almost a century ago.

The 23-year-old Paalam got up from an eight-count knockdown that saw him doubling up against the ropes, but couldn’t overcome the huge gap built by the Birmingham, England native in the first two rounds even after taking the final round where he gave it all in a last-ditch bid to turn the tide.

So the former scavenger from Carmen, Cagayan de Oro will leave this Japanese capital with a silver medal around his neck– a no-mean feat considering he made it to Tokyo just to fill up a slot after he lost in the Asian elims and the final Olympic qualifiers scheduled in Paris was cancelled due to the pandemic.

The runner-up finish of Paalam came a week after Nesthy Petecio won a silver in the women’s featherweight division and nearly two weeks after weightlifter Diaz gifted the nation its first Olympic gold medal that was 89 years in the making.

In a shining accomplishment that sent Filipino sports officials in glee, the 19-member Team Philippines will go down in the history of our Olympic participation as the most prolific ever as it won one gold, two silver and one bronze medals to easily surpass the three bronze medal harvest in 1932.

Another boxer, Eumir Marcial, took the bronze in his first foray to the Olympics, failing to live up to his lofty billing as the boxer to beat in the middleweight class as he took a split decision loss to defending champion Shakobhidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan in a brawl that was a joy to watch from beginning to end.

The fateful knockdown came at 1:48 mark of the opening round after Yafai hit him with a 1-2 combination, then fired another right that sent the Filipino down, before quickly getting up as the referee made the mandatory eight-count.

Despite the knockdown, Paalam recovered quickly, continued exchanging fire with the methodical Briton and ended the round with guns ablaze. But this was not enough since all the five judges gave the round to Yafai via 10-9 scores.

The official verdict was a split decision, with Yafai getting 29-28 scores from four judges and Paalam emerging winner from the fifth judge via 29-28 count.

Still, it was a magnificent campaign for this brave, fighting machine, who once roamed the streets of Cagayan de Oro to scavenge to make both ends meet.

Later in the interview area, his life as a scavenger kept coming back, and left him breaking into tears again.

“Itong medal na ito, may simbolo din po ito sa buhay ko,” he said, crying. “Kasi isa akong mangangalakal, itong medalya ay gawa sa mga sirang gadget po. Sa basura s’ya galing, kaya nai-connect ko po s’ya sa buhay ko.

“‘Yun po ang pinanghugutan ko para makuha ko ito.”

“Nagpapasalamat ako sa Panginoon sa pagbibigay ng lakas sa akin at naabot ko ang pangarap ko, first time kong nakalaro ng Olympics sa ganitong edad ko,” Paalam said.

“Halos lahat ng mga magagaling nandito, mga second time Olympian, mga ilang taon nang naging Olympian … ako papasok pa lang.”

On his way to the finals, Paalam beat four veterans, including Rio Olympic and world titlist Shakhobodin Zoirov of Uzbekistan via 5-0 decision to move into the semifinals against hometown bet Ryomie Tanaka, whom he reduced to a very ordinary fighter.

Paalam defeated Ireland’s Brendan Irvine on points (4-1), then outpointed Algeria’s Mohamed Flissi in a convincing victory that made the coaching staff feel that the young boy would make a great run in his first Olympic stint.

And Carlo did.

Over at the Kasumigaseki Country Club in Saitama, the Philippine women’s golf team, composed of Yuka Saso and Bianca Pagdanganan, wrapped up competition after four rounds.

Saso finished at joint ninth place, charging back in the last round with a 6-under par 65, her best score in the tournament.

Her tallies of 74, 68, 67 and 65 for a 274 total was 10-under for the event, which was won by Nelly Korda of the United States at 17-under by one stroke over Japan’s Mone Inami, who shot a final round 6-under 65.

Inami edged New Zealand’s Lydia Ko for runner up honors after the two went into a playoff when they concluded the tournament with identical 268s. The Japanese won out with a par on the first hole to the Kiwi’s bogey

Pagdanganan, who fired a 2-under par 69 in the opener before scorching heat and intermittent rains took hold of the course, came in tied at 43rd after a final round 74 that gave her a 1-over par 285 total. By Joe Antonio