Gabuco settles for bronze

MANILA, Philippines — Light-flyweight Josie Gabuco bowed to Gulasal Sultonalieva of Uzbekistan, 1-4, Thursday night, leaving Tokyo Olympics-bound Eumir Marcial and two others as the last Filipinos standing in the ASBC Asian Men’s and Women’s Boxing Championships in Dubai.

It was a heartbreaking result for the 34-year-old former world and Asian champion as she seemed to have done enough to snatch the win but just couldn’t get the judges’ nod in a tightly-fought duel.

The top-seeded Gabuco settled for the bronze.

It will now be up to Marcial and countrymen Mark Lester Durens and Junmilardo Ogayre to carry the fight for a team that opted not to field its three other Olympic-bound pugs – Irish Magno, Nesthy Petecio and Carlo Paalam – due to quarantine woes.

Marcial was scheduled to face Uzbek Jafarov Saidjamshid in the middleweight division while Durens and Ogayre were to trade punches with Kazakh Daniyal Sabit and Uzbek Mirazizbek Mirzahalilov in the flyweight and bantamweight classes, respectively, last night.

Marcial, a strong medal contender in the Tokyo Games in July, has yet to see action following a first-round bye and a walkover win over Mongolian Otgonbaatar Byamba-Erdene, who pulled out due to a shoulder injury.