Payla, Brin book Olympic trip

PUERTO PRINCESA, Palawan — Filipino fighters Violito Payla and Romeo Brin embellished their guaranteed Athens Olympic stints with gold-medal finishes in the 22nd Asian Boxing Championships at the Puerto Princesa Coliseum here last night.

Payla crowned himself the flyweight champion while Brin ruled the welterweight division as they overcame highly-touted rivals in the championship bouts of the weeklong slugfest much to the delight of the cheering hometown crowd.

Team Philippines missed what could have been a third gold medal as Chris Camat lost to Kazakh rival Gennadi Goulikin via a second-round stoppage in the middleweight final.

Riding the crest of his emphatic semifinal victory over Tulash Boy Doniyorov of Uzbekistan, Payla, 25, came out charging like a bull and fashioned out a 25-18 whipping of Asian Games gold medalist Kim Ki Suk of South Korea.

Brin mirrored Payla’s feat later with a 32-28 win over Uzbek rival Dilshod Mahmunob. The Filipino welterweight champion is to see action in his third straight Olympic games.

"Masayang-masaya ako at napasaya ko ang mga kababayan natin, bukod pa sa makakapunta ako sa una kong Olympics," said Payla, an Army private first class from Cagayan de Oro City.

Gold medal winner in the light flyweight division in the 2002 Busan Asian Games, Kim displayed so much cockiness to his disappointment later on as he received crisp combinations from Payla.

Kim made good use of his height and reach advantage as he took Payla seriously in the second round. But the Filipino pug still connected with jarring blows, erecting an 11-point advantage going into the last two rounds.

Unmindful of the scores, Payla stayed on the attack in the third round and had the referee stepping in for a mandatory eight-count as the Filipino rocked the Korean with a vicious left hook.

"Hindi ko inisip kung sino ang lamang, basta inatake ko lang nang inatake," said Payla after duplicating his conquest of Kim in their quarterfinal round bout in the 2003 Afro-Asian Games in India.

The last of the Thais — Somjit Jongjohor — bested Doniyorov to clinch the bronze medal and join Payla and Kim in the Athens trip in their division.

In the light flyweight final, Pakistan’s Karim Nounian scored a 22-18 decision over a talented Chinese rival Zou Shimming in a bout that drew boos from the crowd.

The meet, which staked 24 slots to the Athens Olympics, was organized by Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes, Puerto Princesa Mayor Edward Hagedorn, boxing chief Manny Lopez with support from the Philippine Sports Commission, San Miguel Corp., Accel and Pacific Heights.

Also winning bronze medals and gaining Olympic tickets were North Korean light flyweight Hyok Ju Kwak, South Korean bantamweight Won-Il Kim and Uzbekistan featherweight Beklov Khidirov.