This loss was a tough one to swallow. With another Olympic medal in his sights, Carlo Paalam will instead go home empty-handed after the judges rule in his opponent’s favor.
Carlo Paalam’s Paris 2024 Olympics journey came to a bitter end after he dropped a razor-thin split decision to Charlie Senior of Australia in their men’s 57kg quarterfinal bout at the Paris North Arena.
The scores were 30-27 and 29-28 for Paalam and 30-27 and 29-28 twice for Senior, the fourth seed who spent the entire bout lifting his right arm after throwing a punch as if to signal to the judges that he had scored.
Paalam faced a six-inch height difference, but it didn’t deter him as he patiently waited to counterpunch and score. It worked in the first round as he got the nod of three judges. Senior switched his stance a few times in the second round and although Paalam adjusted well and still landed some clean shots, three judges gave the second round to the Australian to even things up heading into the final round.
Paalam again appeared to have gotten the better of the exchanges in the third round, including the closing seconds where he tagged Senior a couple of times, but when the decision was announced, it was a shocker for Paalam and his corner.
The loss was a tough one for Paalam, as a win would have guaranteed him at least a bronze medal and would have come just minutes before Carlos Yulo’s gold medal-winning performance in the men’s floor exercise final. It also would have been his second Olympic medal after winning a silver in the 52kg division in Tokyo.
Banner image from AFP.
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