PHILIPPINES WIN FOUR MEDALS IN CHINA BOXING OPEN
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 23 Jun 2013
Petecio.
The Philippine boxing team sent by the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) and PLDT won four medals in the highly-competitive China Open in Guiyang, China.
Nesthy Petecio saved the ABAP team from coming home without a gold. She won a convincing victory over Alexis Pritchard of New Zealand in the finals by a 3-0 verdict for a unanimous decision in the 60-kg. category.
Petecio was only 5'3" while Pritchard stood at 5'11". But the 21-year-old female boxer from Davao finally connected her punches after several misses and delivered uppercuts and hooks to the head and body of the Kiwi boxer.
World champion Josie Gabuco failed in her bid to secure a gold when the much-improved Xu Shiqui of China exacted revenge on the Filipina to win by a 3-0 verdict. The Palawan boxer defeated Xu during the world championships last year. Gabuco scored an upset over three-time world champion and 2012 London Olympics silver medalist Ren Cancan in the semi-finals but settled for a silver medal.
Junel Cantancio lost to Viacheslav Supinov of Russia 0-3 and won another silver medal. He gave several punches to his nemesis but the power-punching Russia proved to be more dominant.
Earlier in the semi-finals, London Olympian Mark Anthony Barriga gave the Philippines a bronze medal. He bowed to Guiyang native Wo Zhunglin on a 0-3 decision. He injured his thumb in an uppercut during the fight and had to be taken to the hospital.
ABAP president Ricky Vargas sent a message commending the team of their achievement, saying he is ?proud of our boxers? achievements in a tough tournament such as the China Open.?
ABAP executive director Ed Picson commented after Barriga's loss that our boxers have yet to adjust to the new a scoring system. ?They need to know how to adjust their game to the system. We had a lengthy meeting after the fights this afternoon with the coaches and boxers to explain to them in more detail what they need to do to take advantage of the new rule?, said Picson.
The host country China won the overall championship with seven golds, followed by Kazakhstan and Russia with two each then the Philippines and Mongolia with one apiece. New Zealand got two silvers while India had one. Only Mauritius failed to obtain a medal.
Other PLDT-ABAP team members who failed to win a medal were Roldan Boncales (flyweight), Nico Magliquian (bantamweight) and Dennis Galvan (light welterweight). The coaches were Pat Gaspi, Roel Velasco and Elias Recaido Jr.
Ed Picson was the delegation head while the women had AIBA international technical official (ITO) Karina Picson as team manager.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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