Team GB’s Galal Yafai has won the gold medal in the men’s flyweight final after beating the Philippines’ Carlo Paalam at the Tokyo Olympics.

The Birmingham boxer took down his opponent in the opening round with a straight left and edged a high-octane contest to secure the verdict.

It concluded a stunning run of form for the 28-year-old, who was competing in his second Olympics having lost his second bout at Rio 2016.

All five of the judges gave Paalam the last round of the contest but Yafai had built up enough of a lead to secure the win on four of the five judges’ cards.

Yafai followed his older brothers Kal and Gamal onto the GB Boxing programme and in Rio he became the family’s second Olympian, losing to Cuba’s eventual bronze medallist Joahnys Argilagos in his second fight.

His brother Kal tweeted saying he was “lost for words”.

Kal had been knocked out early in Beijing in 2008 before being omitted from the team for London 2012 after withdrawing from the second of a scheduled three-fight box-off against his rival Andrew Selby.

A European silver medal in Kharkiv in 2017 gave the first glimpse of Yafai’s true potential.

He booked his place in the Tokyo Olympics prior to the suspension of the qualifying process in March 2020, alongside British boxer Peter McGrail.

Yafai came into his own in Tokyo, negotiating a tough route to the gold medal match, starting with a convincing stoppage win over Koryun Soghomonyan of Armenia in his preliminary bout.

Alhumdililah!!! My brother @galalyafai Olympic champion!!! I’m lost for words!!! Olympic champion!!!! Olympic champion!!!!

A tight win over Zambian Patrick Chinyemba provided a timely opportunity to refocus, and Yafai reaped the benefit in his following bout when he beat Cuba’s former world champion Yosbany Veitia.

A medal duly guaranteed, Yafai went one better with a thrilling performance in his semi-final against Kazakhstan’s Saken Bibossinov.

In Paalam, however, he faced an opponent with arguably an even more impressive path than his own, including a split decision win over Ireland’s Brendan Irvine, plus a split decision victory over reigning Olympic champion Shakhobidin Zoirov in a quarter-final bout that was abridged due to injuries.

Paalam’s is an extraordinary story in itself, a former scavenger on the rubbish tips of the Filipino capital Manila, who was persuaded to enter his first boxing bout at the age of seven and used the money to buy rice for his family.

He refused to go down without a fight, landing a left-hand in the dying seconds of the contest, but it was not enough to deny Yafai the victory.

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