Marcial, Paalam seek finals slots vs tough foes

TOKYO. — Middleweight Eumir Marcial and flyweight Carlo Paalam, already assured of bronze medals, try to sustain their march to the gold when they battle formidable foes Thursday in the boxing semifinals of the Tokyo Games at the Kokugikan Arena here.

If they win, they will move closer to the ultimate prize but standing in their way in the fourth to the last day of boxing action here are dangerous opponents.

Marcial is up against Ukrainian Oleksandr Khyzhniak, who dealt the Filipino a shattering loss at the Strandja International in Bulgaria in 2019.

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Paalamfaces Japanese Ryomei Tanakaand needs to come up with a convincing performance to prevent sympathetic judges from ruling the hometown bet’s way.

Paalam climbs the ring at 2:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. Manila time) while Marcial clashes with the Ukrainian at 3:03.

Coach Ronald Chavez recalled that Marcial lost to the Ukrainian in Strandja but added that was because Eumir got injured. He believes that result of that battle won’t have a bearing here.

Coach Don Abnett, the Australian mentor of the national boxing team here, pointed out that Marcial is much stronger now. The pride of Zamboanga City has been Mr. Demolition Man here, winning his first two bouts via stoppage.

Paalam is also enjoying a great ride, having scored one of the biggest upsets in the Games here by stunning Rio Games gold medalist Shakhobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan in the quarterfinals.

“We are overjoyed with Carlo’s win over the Rio gold medalist. It was an upset that the coaching staff told me was imminent, but we were still concerned until Carlo came out smoking in the first round. He truly looked like a champion,” said Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines president Ricky Vargas.

The boxing chief has high hopes Paalam will go all the way to win the gold.

“I don’t know much about boxing technique and form but I can tell you Carlo’s a winner,” he said.

Back in Manila, Sen. Risa Hontiveros has a filed a resolution to honor Nesthy Petecio for making history as the first Filipina boxer to win a silver medal in the Olympics.

Hontiveros, Senate committee chair on women, children, family relations, and gender equality chair, said it would be an important move for the Senate to honor Petecio to “officially mark Filipinas’ important place in history and in sports.”

“Filipinas making history twice in a row comes as no surprise. We are made of tough stuff.

Hidilyn (Diaz) showed us it was possible, and Nesthy showed us that it’s just who we are.

Nesthy punched through the glass ceiling for so many Filipino girls and members of the LGBQIA+ community who dream to represent us in the world’s greatest sporting event,” Hontiveros said.

Sen. Pia Cayetano, Senate ways and means committee chair, also filed a measure to exempt private donations and rewards given Olympic medalists and their coaches from taxation.

Cayetano, in filing Senate Bill No. 2341 last Monday, said while incentives for athletes are exempted from tax as provided for in Sec. 32 of the National Internal Revenue Code, “those received from private donors are still subject to six percent donor’s tax.” — With Raymond Africa

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