Marcial settles for bronze
TOKYO. – On Saturday, Carlo Paalam will ‘scavenge’ for a gold medal.
A former scavenger from Cagayan de Oro, Paalam barged into the gold-medal round with a flourish Thursday, mauling Japanese Ryomie Tanaka to score an emphatic unanimous decision win in the flyweight division of the Olympic Games at the Kokugikan Arena here.
Using his speed and smarts to the hilt, Paalam, 23, turned the head of his Japanese rival into a virtual target practice as he landed 1-2 combinations with impunity while easily darting away from trouble en route to an imposing 5-0 victory, his fourth impressive win in the pandemic-hit Olympics.
“‘Yung strategy na ginawa ko, idinaan ko sa bilis. Ginawa ko kung ano talaga ‘yung laro ko. Kailangang pag-isipan mo ‘yung mga galaw mo tsaka tiwala sa sarili. Kaya nga po kami nagte-training, nag-e-ensayo para po dito,” said Paalam.
Flashing the mentality of an ultimate survivor learned from scavenging in his early years, Paalam proved to be a blur for his overmatched Japanese foe who, in the middle of the second round hit Paalam at the back of his head, leaving him winded. But Paalam wisely held on to the Japanese to get his second wind.
“Noong second round, natamaan po ako doon. Kita niyo naman sa second round, binatukan ako, kaya hinawakan ko na talaga ‘yung paa niya para makapahinga ng kaunti,” said Paalam, adding the referee may have not seen the illegal strike because of the swift exchanges.
He is assured of the silver, the third medal of the boxing team here, counting the silver of featherweight Nesthy Petecio and the bronze of Eumir Marcial, who 30 minutes later dropped a close split decision loss to Oleksandr Khyzhniak of Ukraine.
Overall, the country has improved its medal harvest to 1-1-1, counting the gold medal won by weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz last July 26. The color of Paalam’s medal will be reflected in the medal tally on Saturday.
Paalam shoots for the gold two days from now against Great Britain’s Galal Yafai, who 15 minutes earlier edged Paalam’s 2020 Asia & Oceania Boxing Olympic Qualification Tournament tormentor Saken Bibossinov of Kazakhstan in a close 3-2 split decision win.
Over at the Kasumigaseki Country Club, Bianca Pagdanganan fired an even-par 71 on another humid day and failed to keep up with the scorching pace set by American Nelly Korda after the second round of the women’s golf competition here.
Pagdanganan stood right where she started at 2-under after a round of mixed fortunesbut faded from joint fifth at the start of the day to a tie for 27th as a host of contenders got their game going.
From three down, the 23-year-old LPGA campaigner fell 11 shots behind new leader Korda, who put together a tournament-best nine-under 62 and opened a four-shot lead on a 36-hole total of 129. She fired 67 in the first round.
Yuka Saso made three birdies in her final five holes to score a three-under 68 and get back to even-par 142. But she and Pagdanganan need a big final two rounds to have any hope of bringing home a medal from their Olympic debuts.
Nanna Koerstz Madsen of Denmark (64), Aditi Ashok of India (66), and Emily Pedersen of Denmark (63) were tied for second place at 9-under while overnight leader Madelene Swagstrom of Sweden stood alone at 8-under after a 68.
Aside from their in-form opponents, Pagdanganan and Saso’s hopes for a comeback are under threat from an approaching typhoon that could force organizers to cut the tournament to 54 holes.
An abbreviated tournament will all but dash the hopes of the two Filipins in the 60-man field, who will need the two rounds to storm back into contention. A decision is expected to be made on Saturday.
Like Paalam, who is bidding to become the country’s first Olympic gold medalist in boxing, Yafai is also chasing history, out to become the first boxing gold medalist from the United Kingdom.
The Philippines’ best finish so far in Olympic boxing were the silver medals of Petecio, Anthony Villanueva in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
“Hinihiling ko lang po sa kapwa ko Pilipino na ipagdasal ako. Gagawin ko ang best ko, kasi hindi ko naman hawak ‘yung desisyon, tsaka ‘yung kalaban ko kasi magaling din. Tiwala lang sa sarili. Sana ibigay na sa atin ng Panginoon,” said Paalam, who sent a “shoutout” to Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno, one of his biggest supporters.
A gold medalist in the light-flyweight division of the 30th Southeast Asian Games two years ago, Paalam continued his improbable Olympic odyssey after he seemingly lost his bid when the World qualifiers in Paris, France was scrapped last June due to the pandemic.
But the International Olympic Committee’s Boxing Task Force, which took over the supervision of the Tokyo boxing meet from the suspended International Boxing Association, resorted to its devised boxing ratings to determine the remaining Olympic tickets.
As the No. 1 in their respective weight divisions, Paalam and Petecio qualified as last-minute additions to the national boxing squad, joining Marcial and Irish Magno to Tokyo.
His scrappy mentality has served him well, winning his first two bouts easily by scores of 4-1 and 5-0 over Ireland’s Brendan Irvine and Algeria’s Mohammed Fissi, respectively.Paalam passed the acid test with a big conquest of reigning Olympic and world champion Shakhobidin Zoirov in the quarterfinals last Tuesday.
Malacanang celebrated the victory of Paalam and welcomed the bronze medal of Marcial, with Presidential spokesman Harry Roque saying: “Our Filipino boxers have brought pride and honor to the Philippines. They truly serve as inspiration for our people, especially the youth, to emulate.”
Roque also said the government will look into the possibility of giving incentives to Olympic silver medalist Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco, who claimed he did not receive some of the rewards that were promised him after his Atlanta Olympics stint. — With With Bong Pedralvez and Jocelyn Montemayor
