TOKYO—Thanks to Hidilyn Diaz’s gold medal in weightlifting, the Philippines stood head-and-shoulder with Thailand on the medal tally board five days into the Tokyo Olympics.
The Philippines and Thailand are locked with five other countries which have so far won one gold medal each in the Games that aren’t halfway through yet but with the China, host Japan and the US jostling for the top three positions.
Panipak Wongpattanakit topped taekwondo’s women’s -49 kgs class to keep the Thais at par with the Filipino athletes, who are already guaranteed of a bronze medal following Nesthy Petecio’s entry to boxing’s women’s featherweight semifinals.
Indonesia was the only other Southeast Asian country on the medal tally board with one silver—Eko Yuli Irawan (men’s 61 kgs)—and one bronze—Windy Cantika Aisah (women’s 49 kgs), both in…
