Barriga impresses Cuban mentor

LONDON – Mark Barriga has all the ammunitions at his command to dispose of Kazakhstan’s Birzhan Zhakypov in the round of 16 of the lightflyweight (46-49 kg) on Saturday, but he will be needing more than that to win.

The judges’ decision.

Everybody believes he will also win in the next round if his first round win is an indication.

No less than former Phl national coach, Cuban Raul Liranza, now one of the coaches of the Cuban squad competing here, was impressed at the the way Barriga beat Italy’s Manuel Cappai, 17-7, Tuesday afternoon before a huge crowd at the ExCel center.

“He’s good. Very strong. Good counter-puncher,” said Liranza of the Filipino figher.

And the Kazakh?

“Weak in the body. Your boy can beat him,” said Liranza. “I saw him fight against France (Jeremy Beccu). He had a hard time. He almost lost.”

Liranza is known in Manila as the Cuban coach who helped Onyok Velasco win a near gold in the same division during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Velasco settled for the silver, so far the best medal of the Philippines in the quadrennial meet after the 1964 triumph of Anthony Villanueva.

Liranza’s opinion gives weight to the general impression that, indeed Barriga, 20, can handle the 5-6 Kazakh.

First, the Kazakh’s height advantage will no longer be a factor because the 5-0 Filipino showed he can beat taller opponents the way he overpowered the 5-7 Manuel Cappai in a lopsided match in the first round.

But the boxing association must guard against an important factor in Barriga’s search for a round-of-16 victory. He must win convincingly to avoid adverse judges’ decisions.

Two Kazakh boxers have already won close decisions in the first round and their foes’ coaches have bitterly protested the outcome.

Thailand national coach Thong Thaweekhun filed a formal protest with the jury after his boxer, Ardee Sailom, lost to Kazakh Gamno Zhailov after a 12-12 draw in the first round of the lightweight division Thursday.

The protest did not prosper because the jury contended it was not filed within the required 30-minute period.

“There might be something wrong. I said before coming here that judging was still a big problem in boxing and Sailom’s controversial loss proves my remarks were right,” Thong said.

Thong insisted Sailom would have won easily had his opponent not been from Kazakhstan which has, he said, two members on the executive committee of the International Boxing Association (AIBA).

“Sailom did his best and everyone saw him do better than his opponent,” Thong said.

“Even Gani admitted that he should have lost. I feel sad that Sailom lost because of poor officiating.”

The other case involved Zhakypov himself and his opponent Beccu after the bout between Barriga and Cappai.

The French boxer was ahead of the Kazakh by a point before the third round, and the crowd saw what looked like a French victory in a close fight although the win could have gone either way.

The Kazakh was awarded an 18-17 win to the surprise of the crowd.

To secure a win, Barriga must be as aggressive as he did in the first round where he led the Italian through all three rounds (three minutes per round) of fighting.

Barriga gained the confidence he needed in the first minutes of his Olympic debut when he landed a solid left straight that saw the Italian’s expression change. And his killer instinct said he must go on the offensive.

“It was then I felt I could win the fight. I felt my opponent got intimidated,” he recalled.

“I felt the Italian also had power and I had to be really quick to get out of the way of his power shots especially in the second round. I got hit by a wild shot by Cappai to the chest that almost knocked the wind out of me but I stood my ground,” he said.

Later in the third, after national coach Roel Velasco adjusted his headguard and he knew by then that he was leading comfortably, he decided to do his “Pacquiao moves.”

“I emulated my boxing idol and I scored a couple more points in that stretch,” he said.

Ye simply built to blitz opposition

LONDON – How can a 16-year-old Chinese girl swim faster than Ryan Lochte of the US in the last 50 meters? Australian coach Ken Wood, who has been training for the past two years, said there are no drugs involved. Ye Shiwen is just too powerful, period.

“Eyebrows arched when Ye set a world record of 4:29.43 in the 200m freestyle and set an Olympic record of 2:08.39 in the 400m individual medley.

Wood had been working on Ye’s breathing technique, stroke and speeding her returns. Her advantages, he said, were her proportions: 

At 5-8 and 141 pounds, Ye has better power-to-weight ratio than others. Her hands are huge and her strokes are turbocharged by size 10.5 feet.

Michael Phelps won a record 19th Olympic medal in the 4x200m relay. Phelps surpassed Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina as the most decorated Olympian of all time.

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China was embroiled in another Olympic row as its women’s badminton team was accused of match-fixing. Two of their players appeared to deliberately lose to avoid a stronger team in the next round. The South Koreans followed suit, hitting the shuttlecocks into the net and missing shots. In a “domino effect” the match between Indonesia and another South Korean pair was also apparently fixed.

Furious spectators who bought L80 to see the world’s best players booed. They demanded a refund.