CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — The veterans expectedly dominated their semifinal foes but a pair of virtually unknown boxers from Olongapo City and Davao Del Norte-A stole the show in the penultimate day of 2007 Smart National Open Boxing Championships Friday night.
Philippine Army’s Godfey Castro outclassed hometown bet Jefferson Suan of Misamis Oriental in the senior bantamweight semifinal bout which lasted only 37 seconds of the first round.
A huge Friday crowd had assembled in front of the Misamis Oriental Capitol, expecting Suan to provide the fancied Castro a run for his money. What they saw instead was a mismatch manifested by the 25-5 score in favor of Castro.
"Okey naman po sya (Suan) kaya lang, lamang po talaga ako sa experience," said the soft-spoken 22-year-old Castro, bronze medalist in the Doha Asian games last year.
Castro, two-time gold medalist in this annual tournament by the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines thus earned a shot at the gold. He will face Olongapo City’s Larry Barra who punched his way to the finals via a similarly RSC win over Zamboanga City’s Noel Binbernaldo in the other half of the bantamweight semifinal.
Another national training pool member, Bill Vicera of PN/Bago City, also made his way to the finals of the senior pinweight division (45 kgs.) by beating out Rey Mercado of Cotabato via RSC-outclass with 1:29 minutes left in the first round.
Like Castro, Vicera also faces a tall order in the finals since he will be facing Davao Del Norte-A’s Rechie Behec, who won on points over Michael Paragoso of Zubiri Boxing Team, 34-28.
It will be Genebert Basadre of the Philippine Army against Joegin Ladon of PN/Bago City-A in the finals of the seniors light weight division (60 kgs.), while Anthony Igusquiza of the Phil. Army and Misamis Oientals’s Delfin Boholst dispute the gold medal in the light welterweight class (64 kgs.)
Basadre, a member of the seven-man RP team to the Chicago tournament in Oct. 18, stopped Jherjigi Chavez of Marikina City with 1:20 minutes left in the first round.
Igusquiza, on the other hand, won on points over Ferdie Gamo of PN/Bago City, 38-36, to arrange a title showdown with Boholst, another Chicagobound boxer, who defeated Adonis Cabalquinto of Bago City via RSC.
Other finalists were welterweight Wilfredo Lopez, winner via RSC over Marlon Borja of Davao City, and Larry Semillano of PN/Bago City, who also won via RSC over Isaac Tijlin of Davao City.
|
