Marcial, Payla seek medals to boost team

DOHA — For Violito Payla and Anthony Marcial, their two victories in the elims would mean nothing without winning their third assignment Thursday — a tall odd indeed for these diminutive RP fighters hoping to assure the Philippines of at least two bronze medals in boxing competitions in the Asian Games here Thursday.

Payla, who whipped Iran’s Omran Akbari and Viet Quoc Tran in the first two days, takes on a gritty Indian Jitender Kumar at 2 p.m at the Aspire Hall 5 in an explosive quarterfinal duel in the 51kg division the Filipinos are pinning so much hope on.

That’s because it could fire up the rest of those who survived elimination for seats in the quarters and a crack at the medal race after the other RP bets continue to struggle and grope for form in other fronts.

Marcial, on the other hand, is raring to come up with a big follow up to his victories over Inhta Keo of Laos and Sufaka Mahdi, the local bet whom he clobbered en route to an RSC-O (referee stopped contest-outscored) win. He faces Galib Jafarov of Kazakhstan for the bronze medal in the featherweight category.

"May laban pero dapat maunahan agad para ma-control ang laban (We have a chance but they must control the fight right from the start)," said coach Pat Gaspi.

So far, the national boxers have been the steadiest in the RP contingent, with five bets into the quarterfinals although the road to glory remains bumpy and testy for each one of them.

Godfrey Castro guns for the bronze Friday as he clashes with another local bet Ali Saad Al Ahmry where a victory could line him up for what could be the toughest challenge in his young career, a date with veteran Thai champion Suban Pannon in the semifinal round of the lightfly category.

Joan Tipon, the most fancied fighter in the seven-man RP squad, collides with North Korean in Kim Won Guk also on Friday, eyeing another victory that could set him up against another Thai ace in Worapoj Petchkoom in the bantamweight semis.

Lightweight Genebert Basadre had a tough 20-19 win over Pakistani Ali Asghar Shah late Monday and the reigning SEA Games gold medalist zeroes in on the bronze against Serdar Hudayberdiyev of Turkemenistan in the quarters Saturday. — Dante Navarro