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By Frank Calapre Correspondent
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY: Navy-man
Albert Pabila of Bago City pulled off the day’s biggest upset when
he eliminated Olympics veteran Harry Tanamor in the lightflyweight
division of the 2007 Smart-National Open, Youth and Women’s
Amateur Boxing Championships before a huge crowd at the Provincial
Capitol ground Wednesday.
The score was tied at 23-23 after
four rounds but in the tiebreak countback system, three judges
favored the promising Pabila while only two voted for Tanamor, who
competed in the 2004 Athens Olympics.
The win sent Pabila into the
quarterfinal round where he will meet Marvin Somodio of Baguio City,
a 23-17 winner over Romulo Gio.
“I just followed the
instruction of the my coach Leopoldo Cantancio [also an Olympian]
not to allow Harry to make his form and just to stay in front of
him. It worked and I’m glad to have finally beaten him after four
meetings,” said Pabila, a member of the RP training pool since
2003.
Tanamor, coming off a silver
finish in the 2007 Czechoslovakia International Invitational,
claimed he was tired but gave his best.
“I’m very tired, we just
arrived from the Czech Republic. But I offered no excuses, a loss is
a loss,” said Tanamor.
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