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BANGKOK: Violito Payla and Joan Tipon drew first-round byes in the
Asian Olympic qualifying but the Asian Games gold medalists need to
press on to get their bids going at the Dhurakij Punjit University
here Friday.
Payla, 28, tests Anvar Yunusov’s mettle in the
first bout in the second day of action Saturday with the Tajikistan
bet also getting a free ride in the second round of the 51-kg
division of the top-level tournament staking Olympic berths for the
gold and silver medal winners.
Granting Payla hurdles Yunusov, the 28-year-old
Cagayan native would be ramming into a formidable rival in either
Mirat Sarsembayev of Kazakhstan or Zorigtbaatar Luvsantseren, two
solid, experienced fighters also aiming to get a crack at the
Beijing Games.
“This is a tough fight for our boys with
majority veterans of so many wars, especially in [Genebert] Basadre
at [Orlando] Tacuyan’s brackets. But they are all mentally and
physically prepared for this tournament,” said boxing chief Manny
Lopez.
The coaching staff used the bonus day-off to
prepare for Saturday’s bouts with head coach Pat Gaspi overseeing
the training of the five-man RP-PLDT Smart boxing team at the
Thai-Japan gym and Ronald Chavez scouting the opposition here.
That includes Ebraheem Algharageer of Jordan,
whose speed and power carried him past Tajikistan’s Malaev Emomali,
30-22, to arrange a clash with Tipon in the lower draw of the 54-kg
division.
“He looked fast and strong but Joan can handle
him,” said Chavez, a former Olympian, in Filipino. “The boys are
in tip-top condition. They are all focused on the task at hand and
the team’s morale is high.”
Also set to see action today is the 19-year-old
Tacuyan, gold medalist in the 2006 Asian 18-under Championship, but
who had the toughest draw against 2003 world champion Jafarov Galib
of Kazakhstan in the featherweight category of this 10-day event
which drew 161 participants from 27 countries.
Basadre and Fil-Am Adam Fiel get to see action
Sunday with the former facing Doha Asian Games gold medalist Hu Qing
of China in the lightweight class and the latter clashing with
Mongolian Byamba Tubshinbat in the light-welterweight division.
-- AFP
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