MANILA, Philippines – After going four-of-four on opening day, the PLDT-ABAP national boxing team won three of its next five matches in the Taipei City International Boxing Tournament at the Taiwan Coliseum in Chinese Taipei Thursday.
Maricris Igam outpointed Mongolia’s Shinetsetseg Davaasuren, 10-4, in their four-round duel in the lightweight (48kg) class while Irish Magno posted her second straight win in the flyweight class with a 16-6 rout of Vietnam’s Trin Thi Dem Kieu.
Bukidnon’s Mario Fernandez bucked a two-point penalty in the third round and went on to beat Taiwanese Wei-Chieh Lin, 11-9, in the bantamweight (56kg ) class.
Lightweight Janice Vallares failed to sustain the Filipinos’ charge as she succumbed to Vietnamese, Le Thi Bang, 7-10.
Lightweight Darwin Tindahan also dropped a 7-17 setback to Japanese Kenji Fujita.
“Our objective here is to give our younger boxers a taste of international competition. It’s a friendly tournament, but of course if we can pick up some medals we will go for it. We are happy to give our Team B boxers this opportunity,” said ABAP president Ricky Vargas.
“We also brought one of our 12 new international referees – Mark Abalos to his first international tournament. I heard he is also doing well,” he added.
The tournament has draws 12 countries, including Japan, Mongolia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea, Singapore, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Macau.