BAC NINH, Vietnam—Eumir Felix Marcial, Rogen Ladon and Ian Clark Bautista pounced on their opponents one after the other on Sunday to scoop three gold medals from boxing in the 31st Southeast Asian Games at the Bac Ninh Stadium.
Marcial, the 26-year-old Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist, as expected, disposed of Timor Leste’s Delio Anzaqeci Mouzinho in the first round with a referee stopping contest decision to clinch the gold medal in the middleweight category.
“I shouted to him to extend the fight, but it didn’t reach the last two-minute mark, I guess. The referee just stopped the fight,” women’s featherweight bronze medalist Nesthy Petecio said while cheering for the country’s four Filipino finalists in boxing.
Ladon made sure Tran Van Thao won’t have any chance of pulling off a controversial win by outhustling the hometown bet in all three rounds for a unanimous decisionwin in men’s flyweight.
Bautista added the third gold from boxing after he defeated Naing Latt of Myanmar in the men’s featherweight final.
Unfortunately, Tokyo Olympian Irish Magno lost to Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Tam in the women’s flyweight championship to settle for a silver medal.
The country hauled three gold, one silver and five bronze medals—a less than half of the seven gold, three silver and two bronze medals won by the country in the 2019 Philippine SEA Games.
Besides Petecio, women’s light flyweight Josie Gabuco, lightweight Risa Pasuit and men’s welterweight Marjon Piañar and lightweight James Palicte bagged a bronze each.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes