Boxers assured of bronze, seek win to reach gold medal round

JAKARTA – The Philippines assured itself of at least three bronze medals with a chance to win as many golds as light flyweight Carlo Paalam, flyweight Rogen Ladon and middleweight Eumir Marcial Lopez breezed past their Kazakh and Korean rivals in the quarterfinals and advanced to the semifinals of the 18th Asian Games boxing competition  at the Jakarta Expo Boxing Hall yesterday.

Paalam, the youngest on the Phl boxing team at 20, toppled Kazakhstan’s Termirtas Zhussupov, a more seasoned slugger 10 years his senior, 30-29, 29-28, 28-29, 30-27, 30-27, to break into today’s semifinal against India’s Amit, who outclassed Kim Jang Ryong of Democratic People’s Republic, 30-27, 30-26, 30-27, 30-26, 30-27.

Ladon, who disposed of lowly Nepalese Chaudhary Prem in the round of 16, whipped Kazakh Mahmetov Azat, 28-29, 29-28, 29-27, 29-28, 28-29 in the quarterfinal. He will take on Thai Yuttapong Tongdee, a former bantamweight, who eked out a 3-2 decision over Gankhuyag Gan-erdene of Mongolia.

Marcial upstaged South Korea’s Kim Jinjea, scoring perfect 30s in each of the five rounds with the Korean,  silver medalist in the Thai International early this year, getting four scores of 27 and one 25 from the judges.

Marcial,  the 2017 gold medalist,  showed his awesome power in the quarterfinal round with a win by RSC (referee-stopped contest) after knocking down his opponent, lowly Macau bet Ng Kuokkun, four times in the first round.

The three boxers were the last men standing from the eight-member boxing team following the early exits of flyweight Irish Magno, featherweight Nesthy Petecio, bantamweight Mario Fernandez, lightweight James Palicte and welterweight Joel Bacho.