Napoles bags gold for Team Pacman
DIGO ITY A 14 year old boxer from General antos ity yesterday put a positive twist on the name that has become so famous for all the wrong reasons.
Ranjo Gil Napoles, fighting on a borrowed pair of running shoes, bagged the gold medal in the junior boys 60 kg class before an enthusiastic unday crowd at the Digos ity Gymnasium here.
Napoles, the 2013 atang Pinoy champion, handily won the gold at the expense of Ronald have r., son of the ilipino boxer who saw action in the 1 2 arcelona Olympics.
His victory powered Team Pacman to the overall championship in the PLDT A AP National Amateur oxing hampionships that drew 104 young boxers from around the country.
Napoles is out to follow in the footsteps of anny Pacquiao, the eight division world champion from General antos ity, and chief sponsor of this event.
The humble 5 foot 7 boxer smiled when asked if he was in any way related to the alleged mastermind of the multi million peso PDA scam.
“Hindi po, said Napoles, son of a government employee and now a third year high school student.
As of presstime, Team Pacman had five gold medals under its banner, and with just a handful evening bouts left, enjoyed an insurmountable lead in the medal standings.
Other winners for Team Pacman were Gaidyl Reducto in school girls 46 kg, erico ahohito in junior boys 48 kg, ean inguillan in junior girls 46 kg and Ryan oreno in youth boys 46 kg.
agayan de Oro has three golds courtesy of arlo Paalam in junior boys 46 kg, Angelica Dadole in junior girls 48 kg and hera ae Usara in junior girls 50 kg.
ago ity, which produced Olympic medalists Onyok and Roel Velasco, has two gold medalists in ario autista in junior boys 52 kg and ario aga in junior boys 54 kg.
ebu, General antos and amboanga have one gold each courtesy of eron Garces in junior boys 50 kg, Pitt Laurente in school boys 46 kg and Rennieboy erraren in school boys 44 kg.
The event is the culmination of a year long, nationwide tournament supervised by the Association of oxing Alliances of the Philippines headed by Ricky Vargas.
rom this national championships, they hope to discover and identify potential members of the national pool. On hand were A AP coaches Pat Gaspi and Ronald have .