By ADRIAN STEWART CO
Four Western Visayas-based boxers are set to fight for the gold medal in the 32nd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games at the Chroy Changvar Center Hall G in Phnom Penh, Cambodia this Saturday, May 13.
Negros Occidental’s Bago City-native Rogen Ladon reached the flyweight division finals after a 4-1 win over Malaysian Muhammad Abdul Qaiyum in the semifinals. He will face Thai Thanarat Saengphet in the gold medal game.
Ian Clark Bautista, a native of Negros Occidental’s Binalbagan town, also reached the finals of the featherweight division after a 5-0 win over Naing Latt of Myanmar. He will face Indonesian Asri Udin.
Ilongga Irish Magno is also in the finals of the women’s 54-kilogram category against Thai fighter Jutapas Jitapong, while Bacolodnon Riza Pasuit will vie for the women’s 63-kg gold against Tih Linh Ha of Vietnam.
Other Filipino boxers who reached the gold medal game of their respective weight divisions were Carlo Paalam, Paul Julyfer Bascon, John Marvin, and siblings Nesthy and Norlan Petecio.
The only Pinoy casualty was Markus Cezar Tongco, who lost to Manh Cuong Nguyen of Vietnam in the men’s heavyweight semifinals via referee stoppage, and settled for the bronze medal.
Meanwhile, Eric Shaun Cray ruled the 400-meter hurdles for the sixth straight time on Thursday, May 11, after clocking 50.03 seconds to easily beat Natthapon Dansungnoen of Thailand (50.73) and Calvin Quek of Singapore (50.75).
The 34-year-old Cray gave the Philippines its third gold medal in athletics after the record pole vault win of Ernest John Obiena and the breakthrough victory of long jumper Janry Ubas.
Fencer Noelito Jose, women’s hurdler Robyn Brown, Kristian Narca in kun khmer, the Philippine women’s cricket team, and the women’s team in e-sports’ Mobile Legends Bang Bang fell short of delivering golds as they settled for silver medal finishes.
Finishing with bronze medals were Jasmine Alkhaldi in the women’s 50-m butterfly, Sandrix Gainsan in the men’s jianshu event, Jylyn Nicanor in fencing, and the national women’s badminton team./ASC, WDJ