Marcial advances to quarterfinals
TOKYO—EUMIR Felix Marcial sent a strong message—but not Irish Magno—on the boxing ring; Juvic Pagunsan squeezed into contention in men’s golf; and EJ Obiena and Kristina Knott were put on heightened alert halfway through the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday.
Marcial booked a Referee Stopped Contest-injury victory over Algeria’s Younes Nemouchi with 19 seconds remaining in the second round to advance to the men’s middleweight quarterfinals, where another victory would assure him of a bronze medal.
Magno, however, couldn’t solve a taller and lankier Jutamas Jitpong of Thailand and exited from the women’s flyweight division nursing a 0-5 setback.
“I’m so thankful, I want to thank God for giving me strength to win this fight,” Marcial, who turned pro September last year but kept his vow to win gold in the Olympics, said. “I’ll do my best performance in my next fights.”
The alarm bell, meanwhile, was sounded in the country’s campaign in athletics following two Covid-19 positive tests administered on world No. 2 pole vaulter Sam Kendricks of the US and German Chiaraviglio of Argentina.
But Obiena, according to Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association spokesman Edward Kho, is saddened and frightened about the bad news on Kendricks.
“He [Kendricks] and EJ are close friends. They have been having interactions during many competitions in the past,” Kho said. “This is bad news. You never celebrate somebody else’s misery.”
At the Kasumigaseki Country Club course in Saitama Prefecture some 70 kms northwest of Tokyo, Pagunsan carded a five-under 66 in a rain-interrupted first round to tie for fifth place with Denmark’s Joachim Den Hansen and Venezuela’s Jhonattan Vegas.
Pagunsan and co. were three shots off leader Sepp Strata of Austria after the first round when major winner Collin Morikawa and top 10 players Xander Schauffele and Justin Thomas groped for form.
Japan, meanwhile, wrested the No. 1 spot on the medal tally board with 15 gold, four silver and five bronze medals. China was relegated to No. 2 with 14-6-9 gold-silver-bronze and the US was at No. 3 with 13-14-10. Australia (8-2-10) and Russian Olympic Committee (7-11-8) occupied the next two spots.
The Philippines, with its lone gold medal courtesy of Hidilyn Diaz in women’s weightlifting, remained tied for 31st place with 10 other countries including Thailand.
TOKYO—EUMIR Felix Marcial hardly sweat in his Olympic debut on Thursday to move a victory shy of a guaranteed podium finish. The 25-year-old Marcial sent Algeria’s Younes Nemouchi to the exit via Referee Stopped Contestinjury (RSC-I) with 19 seconds remaining in the first round, thus advancing to the quarterfinals of the men’s middleweight class where he is the top seed.
“Accidents happen,” Marcial, 25, said. “He got cut and the doctor decided he could no longer continue.”
Both fighters accidentally banged heads a little over a minute into the first round with the Algerian getting a nasty cut in his right eyebrow.
“I’m so thankful, I want to thank God for giving me strength to win this fight,” Marcial, who turned pro September last year but kept his vow to win gold here, said. “I’ll do my best performance in my next fights.”
Marcial was in control of the fight and barely allowed Nemouchi to slug his way through the cool and cunning Filipino, who trained for a month in the US boxing facility in Colorado Springs with coaches Ronald Chavez and Jerson Nietes.
Also a pride of Zamboanga City besides Olympic gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz, Marcial unleashed a blinding right hook that rocked the Algerian one minute into the fight. He got a standing eight-count from Slovakian referee Simon Radoslav.
“I am so happy that [Eumir] Marcial is back to his old form and with polished new moves he developed in the last three months that he trained with us,” Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines President Ricky Vargas said. “I believe he will only get better because his mind and body are now fully focused.”
A silver medalist in the 2019 World Boxing Championship in Yekaterinburg (Russia), Marcial booked the easy victory before
Philippine Sports Commission Chairman William Ramirez and Philippine Olympic Committee President Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, who, like International Olympic Committee Representative to the Philippines Mikee Cojuangco Jaworski, never missed to cheer the Filipino bets in these Games.
Marcial agreed his month-long stint in Colorado Springs and his brief exposure as a pro made him a polished boxer.
He thanked the other members of the coaching staff—reynaldo Galido, Elmer Pamisa and Don Abnett—and pro mentor Freddie Roach with whom he trained under at his Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles.
Marcial tries to assure the Philippines of another bronze medal on Sunday against Armenian pro Arman Darchinyan, who he has beaten in the 2018 Aiba World Championships.
“I beat him (Darchinyan) in 2018 in Russia, but the Olympics are another story,” Marcial said. “Everyone here prepared hard for their matches.”
Darchinyan was impressive against Andrej Csemez, mauling the Slovakian for a 5-0 victory in the match before Marcial stepped up the ring.
“The fight underscored the great conditioning, excellent tactics and overall preparation Eumir underwent the last three months before Tokyo,” Abap secretary general Ed Picson said.