Tanamor clobbers Indian, reaches medal round

Lightfly Harry Tanamor put behind him the controversial loss by teammate Violito Payla Monday, concentrating on the job at hand against an Indian rival yesterday to hack out an emphatic victory that assured Team Caltex Philippines of at least one bronze medal in the 14th Asian Games boxing competition in Busan, South Korea.

Tanamor scored heavily on deft one-two punches and scored a 21-11 win over Mohammad Ali Qamar for a stint in the medal bouts in the 48-kilogram class.

Guaranteed of the bronze medal – the best the RP boxing team could produce in the 1998 Bangkok Games, the 24-year-old Zamboanga native takes a shot at the gold in the semifinals against Thailand’s Suban Pannon.

But only three RP boxers remain standing in the Games with lightwelter Romeo Brin losing his quarterfinals match against a member of the fearsome Anwar Chowdry brigade – feared not for their skills but for their strong influence with the judges and referees.

Brin, a two-time Olympian, joined Payla, bantam Ferdie Gamo, feather Roel Laguna and lightmiddle Chris Camat in the sidelines as he lost to Asghar Ali Shah.

Incidentally, Team Caltex Philippines is now 0-3 here against Pakistan fighters, with the most heart-breaking loss Payla suffered at the hands of Nouman Karim – err ... the judges – in their own quarterfinal bout Monday.

Earlier, Camat took the exit with an 11-17 loss to Hafeez Imran.

Left in the hunt for the elusive gold with Tanamor are lightweight Anthony Igusquiza and light heavy Maraon Golez. But the three may need to dig deep into their bags of tricks if they are to go all the way to win the championship.

Tanamor is no exception with the young fighter up against a talented Thai rival – Pannon – in his next bout.

Pannon, gold medallist in the 1998 Games and currently the No. 2 lightfly in the world, outpointed Kim Un-Chol of North Korea to advance to the semis.

South Korea’s Kim Ki-Suk stopped Mohamad Zamzai Azizi of Malaysia while Mekhrodj Umarov of Tajikistan defeated Choijiljav Bumchin, 36-27, to arrange their own semis duel in the same weight category.

But Tanamor made a good warm-up for his bout against Panoon by outclassing Qamar all four rounds.

The scrappy Filipino southpaw led 5-1 after the first round, 8-3 after the second and 13-7 after the third.

Sensing danger, Qamar fought aggressively in the third and fourth round, but Tanamor still proved himself the better fighter in a brawl.

He jumped in joy while the RP supporters in the venue roared in approval when his name was announced winner of the bout, a victory matching the feat of Eric Canoy in the Bangkok Games.