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BEIJING—The
country gets its first of three realistic shots at an
Olympic gold medal on Wednesday when Harry Tañamor
battles an opponent from Ghana in a boxing
light-flyweight first-round clash at the Beijing Workers
Stadium.
Manyo
Plange, only 20 and the African Championships silver
medalist last year, is a virtual mystery to the
Filipinos. No one on Team Boxing Philippines has seen
Plange fight. What they know is that the African is
mentored by a Cuban who obliges his wards to punch
rubber tires and not conventional punching bags.
Tañamor,
who celebrates his 30th birthday here on August 20, was
his usual meek self when he said he was ready for his
fight, which could happen at around 8 p.m. (Manila
time).
“Handa
na po ako,” he told the BusinessMirror on Tuesday.
Tañamor
is 400 grams over the 48-kg light-flyweight limit but
that does not pose a problem, according to his Cuban
coach Enrique Tissert.
“I have
prepared the boy well so don’t worry,” Tissert told a
nervous Manny Lopez, president of the Amateur Boxing
Association of the Philippines, on Tuesday.
Fifteen
athletes qualified for the 29th edition of the Games
that host China prepared for lavishly and expensively.
But only Tañamor and taekwondo jins Tshomlee Go and Mary
Antoinette Rivero have realistic chances of landing the
country’s first Olympic gold medal. Taekwondo only
starts August 20 and the two jins are due here next
Monday.
“Just
relax and don’t be nervous. He’ll make the weight
tomorrow [Wednesday],” added Tissert. The weigh-in is
set 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Three of
the 15 Filipino bets have wrapped up their Olympic
participation. Eric Ang was last in shooting’s men’s
individual trap Sunday, while Hidilyn Diaz and James
Bernard Walsh accomplished their modest goals of setting
new Philippine records.
Mark
Javier is also on Wednesday’s schedule but is given not
much of a chance in archery’s men’s individual
competition, and so are Miguel Molina and Christel
Simms, both of whom are expected to merely go for
national or regional records in swimming.
Javier
meets a strong gold medal hopeful from Chinese-Taipei in
Kuo Cheng Wei in one of the 32 matches in the men’s
individual 70-meter recurve event at the Olympic Green
Archery Range.
Molina,
the best male athlete in last year’s SEA Games in
Thailand, will swim in his second event in the Games in
Wednesday’s 200 meters individual medley where the
history-seeking Michael Phelps of the United States is
also competing. Molina could only finish sixth in Heat 2
of the men’s 200 breaststroke Tuesday night. He clocked
2:16.94, 3.60 seconds off Carlos Almeida of Portugal who
topped the heat in 2:13.34.
Simms,
the only Filipino female swimmer here, is entered in the
100-meter freestyle heats.
Indonesia snatched its second medal in the Games, again
a bronze and also from weightlifting. Triyatno showed
potentials for future Olympics after he finished third
behind China’s Zhang Xiangxiang and Colombia’s Diego
Salazar in the men’s 62 kgs class.
China
had 11 gold, three silver and four bronze medals to
continue showing the way in the Olympics it wants to
dominate. The United States, however, crept to second
place after four days of competitions with a 7-6-8
gold-silver-bronze tally, shoving Korea to third with
5-5-1. |
