PH Dominates Boxing in SEA Games
The Philippines bagged nine gold medals (five from boxing) in its biggest one-day haul so far and moved to sixth place overall in the 28th South East Asian Games on Wednesday.
Boxers Josie Gabuco, Ian Bautista, Mario Fernandez, Junel Cantancio, and Eumir Marcial all delivered for the Philippines to take the country’s tally to 21 golds.
Three other boxers – Irish Magno, Nesthy Petecio, and Rogen Ladon – settled for silver medals as the Philippine boxing team finished with a 5-3-2 haul.
Fernandez and Marcial registered the most impressive victories as they scored decisive knockouts in their respective divisions.
Fernandez floored Thailand’s Tanes Ongjunta at the 2:15 mark of the second round to secure the mint in the bantamweight division, and Marcial, the last Filipino boxer to fight on Wednesday, stopped his Singaporean foe, Tay Jia Wei, at the 0:48 mark of the second round of the welterweight final.
Meanwhile, Gabuco won her fourth consecutive SEA Games gold medal, taking a unanimous decision over Thailand’s Chuthamat Raksat in the women’s light flyweight final.
Bautista defeated Singapore’s Mohamed Hamid via a 2-1 split decision in the men’s flyweight, and Junel Cantancio took a unanimous decision win over Vietnam’s Nguyen Van Hai in the men’s lightweight final.
Meanwhile, some private and public schools sports officials are not happy with the Philippines’ performance in the 28th SEA Games.
“It is sad to hear that this country, with the second most population in South East Asia (behind Indonesia) is among the poorest performers. There is nothing to be proud of when you ranked 6th overall. There is government support but the money always goes to politicians’ and sports officials’ pockets,” Palaro official Tony Medoza told local radio in Bacolod.
“The Philippines will always be on the lower half of the standing if the government continues to disregard suggestions by our sports officials. We should not be limited to boxing. There are other sports like gymnastics and fields evens that Filipinos can always dominate, but lack of government support always put this country into laughing stock,” Rene Balonzo from Batangas added.
Since the Philippines joined SEA Games in 1977, the country only won the championship once in 2005 with 113 gold medals when it hosted the 23rd SEA Games. It has never been repeated. Lack of budget for athletes and officials is cited as always the problem.
/Oto Melara/ Assisted Press
