RP boxers’ quest for Olympic gold ends

ATHENS (via Globe Telecom) — Light flyweight Harry Tañamor kept on digging to the body and in the process dug a grave for his Olympic bid Saturday night.

Following a scheme gone awry and reducing the talented and highly rated Filipino pug to a virtual one-dimensional fighter, Tañamor absorbed a stunning 42-25 defeat at the hands of Korean Hong Moo Won at the Peristeri Boxing Hall here.

It was a shocking outcome for the man long regarded as having the best chance to advance as the Filipino boxers, accounting for five of the nine Olympic medals the nation has won in the past, bowed out of contention without a podium finish to show for the second straight Games.

And they squandered this one through their own undoing, sticking to a battle plan of incessant body attacks which the game Korean sent into shambles by almost scoring at will with rights and lefts.

Gone was the swift, stand-up style Tañamor dished out to Tajikistan’s Sherali Dostiev as he went for the body from midway in the first round and paid dearly for it as Hong hammered away in continuous flurries.

The 26-year-old Zamboanga native took an 8-3 margin in the first minute of the first round but Hong rallied to tie the count at 10-all at the end of the first two minutes. He raced ahead to a 23-15 lead in the second round and won comfortably the next two for that one-sided decision.

"Maraming patama sa katawan pero ayaw pumuntos (He made a lot of hits to the body but they didn’t score)," said national coach George Caliwan.

It was a gambit ill-conceived from the outset as boxing officials thought wrongly that body blows would register as much as the head shots.

That greatly diminished Tañamor’s effectiveness and fighting style and what was galling was the Filipino fighter never abandoned the strategy even as the Korean pounded away, at one stage scoring on a string of four blows.

"Nagulat kami at hindi pumuntos sa tiyan. We saw on previous fights on TV that body blows would count in the scores pero kay Tañamor hindi bumibilang," said boxing president Manny Lopez who acts as member of the Jury of Appeal here.

Frank Elizalde, the International Olympic Committee permanent representative, watched frustrated from the stands together with Philippine officials and later questioned Tañamor’s failed bid.

"This is a top-level competition and as far as I know and from my experience, it’s a head-hunting game and body blows just don’t count," he said.

It was a bitter exit for the four Filipino fighters who chased Olympics berths all over Asia and trained for four months in Bulgaria and France. Middleweight Chris Camat and flyweight Violito Payla went out in the first round while lightwelterweight Romeo Brin and Tañamor lost their bid in the second round.

And for the second Olympiad in a row that RP pugs didn’t medal following the silver won by Mansueto "Onyok" Velasco in the 1996 Atlanta Games and the bronze claimed by his elder brother Roel Velasco in Barcelona in 1992 and Leopoldo Serrantes in 1988 in Seoul. They were also shut out in Sydney four years ago.

The country’s other silver medal in boxing was won by Anthony Villanueva in the 1964 Tokyo Olympiad.

Left to fight for the RP cause in the Athens Games now down on its final week are taekwondo jins Donald Geisler, Tshomlee Go and Maria Antoinette Rivero and athletics’ Lerma Gabito in the long jump and Eduardo Buenavista in the men’s marathon.