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.