Ring Travesty

NAKHON RATCHASIMA –They saw it coming but when it did, they couldn’t believe the gall of it all.

The highly fancied Filipina boxers suffered a shattering slew of hometown decisions to their Thai counterparts in five final matches and it took a knockout win by Annie Albania in the flyweight class to earn their lone gold in the 24th SEA Games women’s boxing at the Tumbon Mueagpung Stadium last night.

Albania sent Hansa Kadeewong to the canvas with a thunderous right cross in 1:24 in the first round, avoiding a horrible case of hometown decisions suffered by the five other Filipinas as the Thai team was virtually gifted with the overall championship here.

It took Albania, an Asian champion, a knockout punch to hand the Thais their very first loss in all of the bouts fought so far here.

“Had she not been knocked out, she might have won,” said Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines president Manny Lopez of the Thai fighter.

“This is mockery of the sport. Bastusan na (it’s utter disrespect) and we don’t want to be part of this,” said Lopez. “We at the ABAP always put the interest of our country and we don’t want our country dishonored. We’ll assess our position.”

“I sat beside our president Dr. Ching-Kuo Wu the entire session. Hindi sya mapakali dahil pati sya nabastso (He was uneasy because he felt he was being disrespected). I apologized to him for putting him on the spot.”

The ABAP leadership here was to meet last night to discuss what to do in the men’s finals today where seven Filipino fighters are up against locals.

“We’ve seen a preview of what to expect tomorrow,” Lopez said.

Alice Kate Aparri, Annalisa Cruz, Chilem Jouveliet, Sofla Ronjen and Mitchel Martinez all suffered lopsided losses on points.

Satumrum Sopida was given an 18-6 win over Aparri, Thwinsuwanawang Usakorn an 18-8 rout of Cruz, Thongjan Tassamalee a 17-12 victory over Chilem, Laopeam Peamwilai a 19-0 blanking of Ronjen and Ngoksungnoen Sumitra a 21-11 win over the two-time Asian champion Martinez.

In what appeared to be a pattern except in the Sofla-Laopeam bout, the judges awarded the Filipinas points in the early goings before piling up points for the Thais.

There was an instance where Thongjan surprisingly earned a point while falling on a slip versus Chilem. In the Ngoksungnoen-Martinez, the Thai curiously was awarded a point during a break.

Also surprisingly, the Thais earned points after points while grappling with the Filipinas.

The Thais went 6-of-7 in the day with Ngamlam Duennapha stopping Vietnamese Yen Vu Thi Hai in the second round.

RP chef de mission Monico Puentevella couldn’t believe what he saw. He was fuming when he left the venue.

The RP women’s team, tough contender even in the Asian level, ended up with one gold, five silvers and one bronze.

Likely to suffer the same fate are Godfrey Castro, Junel Cantancio, Orlando Tacuyan Jr., Joegin Ladon, Junie Tizon, Larry Semillano and Maximino Tabangcora in the men’s finals today.

“The guys were all very sad and disappointed. They have very low morale,” said Lopez.