TAEJON CITY, South Korea -- The Philippines' Romeo Brin earned a return trip to the Olympics as he pulled off a come-from-behind 6-4 win over China's Lu Zungwei to reach the finals of the Seoul Cup international boxing championships here Monday.
The 26-year-old Army sargeant from Puerto Princesa City overcame Lu in their slambang bout to gain a crack at the lightwelterweight gold medal -- an effort that made him the third Filipino boxer to gain a ticket to the Sydney Games.
A veteran of the Atlanta Olympics, Brin will be joining flyweight Arlan Lerio and lightweight Larry Semillano to the Sydney trip as he saved Team Caltex Philippines from a disastrous campaign here following Ramil Zambales' defeat to Thai hero Somluck Kamsing, 2-4.
Lightflyweight Danilo Lerio, bantamweight Roel Laguna and welterweight Junie Tizon, the three other members of the RP team, didn't reach the semis.
"Thank God He didn't let us to end up with a fat zero here. Brin's victory boosted our campaign to end our search for a first gold medal in Sydney," said Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines chairman Gemiliano Lopez.
Lopez earlier didn't hide his frustration as Zambales became another casualty of questionable scoring and bad officiating in the 10-day meet.
Coaches Nolito Velasco, Pat Gaspi and George Caliwan felt Kamsing used dirty tactics on Zambales and the referee closed his eyes to Kamsing's misdeeds.
"Ang sama ng officiating. Puro gulang ang ginawa ni Kamsing at walang action na ginawa ang referee," said Velasco.
Velasco noted that Kamsing would clinch with Zambales every chance he got then would stick out his glove to cover the mouth and nose of the Filipino bet.
"Paano pa makakasuntok si Ramil, eh hindi makahinga dahil tinatakpan ni Kamsing iyung ilong at bibig niya," said Velasco.