RP pugs go home with four silvers

KAUNAS, Lithuania — Team Caltex Philippines fought viciously and fiercely to the very end but its efforts hardly impressed the judges and yelling hometown fans as it lost three golds to the host country and one to Latvia to go home with four silvers in the sixth Algirdas Socikas International Boxing Championships here Saturday.

Three Filipinos — lightflyweight Harry Tanamor, flyweight Violito Payla and lightwelterweight Romeo Brin — became ready victims of the Lithuanians who went on to claim overall supremacy in the three-day meet with five gold medals.

Lightweight Anthony Igusquiza lost the power of his punch early and succumbed to Latvia’s Ahmetovs Andrejs, 17-31.

The Filipinos, whose participation here is sponsored by Caltex Philippines and supported by the Philippine Sports Commission, Pacific Heights and Revicon, thus settled for four silver medals to finish seventh overall among 12 nations, with Belarus second with 2-1-3 gold-silver-bronze medals, Ukraine third with 2-0-3, Russia fourth (1-2-5), Germany fifth (1-1-2) and Latvia sixth (1-0-2),

Tanamor, who had earned the respect and adulation of European boxers and boxing officials here and in Finland for an aggressive, raw style that won him the bronze in the 2000 world championships, lost to Lithuania’s Rialdas Skerlo, 19-22.

Payla fought with the same aggressiveness that won him a second round stoppage over a Latvian in the preceding round, but he, too, fell to another Lithuanian, Ivan Stapovic.

He and his teammates could not believe the score, 17-1, which under amateur rules is equivalent to a Referee-Stopped-Contest (RSC-Outclassed) – 58 seconds into the second round.

Brin got back in the third and fourth rounds to overhaul the seven-point lead of his opponent, Darius Marciukaitis also of Lithuania. He eventually lost by the same margin, 7-14.

Manny Lopez, president of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines, was visibly unhappy about the scores, but kept his comments against the judges off the record.

"This is a bad day for Philippine sports. Luck was not on our side but we’re on track in our bigger aim to make the grade in the Asian Games," he said. We’ll review the performance of the boxers to determine the team we will send to international competitions in the future."

"Overall, our European tour (Azerbaijan, Helsinki and Lithuanian tournaments) was a good exposure for our boys. We got what we have came here for — to fight the best there are in Europe to further strengthen our resolve to win in the Asian Games," he added.

The same team won two gold medals in Azerbaijan, courtesy of Tanamor and Payla, one gold in Helsinki (from Payla) and four silvers here.

"Maganda naman ang ipinakita ng mga bata. Iyong dalawang tournament na sunud-sunod at isang araw lang ang pahinga ay talagang magpapahina sa mga bata," said national coach Nolito "Boy" Velasco. "We will resume our training when we get back to Manila. We will not stop until after the Asian Games."

The Filipinos had to take an excruciating 19-hour trip from Helsinki, Finland to this Baltic state with connecting flights in Paris in Central Europe and Oslo, Norway in Northern Europe, following the itinerary booked by a Manila travel agency.

The Filipinos had only a day of rest before seeing action in the Lithuanian tournament.

"Huwag ninyong isipin na tinalo kayo. Study how you lost, study your weaknesses and make the necessary improvements," assistant coach Patricio Gaspi told the team in a dugout meeting.

End it.