Marcial.
Eumir Felix Marcial showed his readiness to take on the best of the rest of the world in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by topping the middleweight division in the Asia Oceania pre Olympic boxing qualifiers that ended yesterday in Jordan.
Marcial bested Abilkhan Amankul of Kazakhstan by split decision in the men's middleweight finals held at the Prince Hamza Hall in Amman, Jordan. He finished the tournament undefeated with four wins, one by referee stopped contest.
Amankul lost for the first time since 2018 when he last dropped a decision to Uzbekhistan's Israel Madrinov, now an undefeated pro, in the middleweight finals of the Asian Games.
In another welcome development, women's flyweight Irish Magno salvaged a spot in the Tokyo Olympics by a rousing 5-0 decision over Samaiya Komosova of Tajikhistan in one of the boxoffs for the remaining two of the six slots allotted for the Asia Oceania region.
However, Carlo Paalam suffered another heart breaking close loss to Uzbekistan's Saken Bobissinov in their men's flyweight box off and failed to land an Olympic spot.
Paalam as well as Ian Clark Bautista and James Palicte will have the chance to try again, the harder way, through the final qualifiers set for Paris in May, with women hopefuls Nesthy Petecio and Riza Pasuit who lost and were eliminated in the quarterfinals last Monday.
Among Southeast Asian countries that participated, Thailand has the highest number of qualifiers at four, namely Thitisan Panmod, Chatchai Butdee, Sosandee Sodaporn and Baikon Manikon. Philippines has two, Marcial and Magno, and Vietnam has just one, men's featherweight Nguyen Van Durong. Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore failed to advance even one of its boxers.
Hongkong's famous pro boxer Rex Tso failed to earn a spot losing to Danial Shahbaskh of Iran in their featherweight box off.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
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