MANILA – The Philippines is now assured of three medals in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
This after Filipino boxer Eumir Felix Marcial knocked out (KO) Armenian Arman Darchinyan in the first round of the men’s middleweight division quarterfinals on Sunday at the Kokukigan Arena in Tokyo, Japan.
Marcial started strong with consecutive combinations, forcing a standing-eight count against the Armenian foe. He then went for the kill with 1-2-3 combinations before unloading a solid right hook that sent Darchinyan to the canvas face first, with 51 seconds remaining.
“Hindi ko ine-expect na makno-knockout ko siya,” Marcial said in an interview with ONE Sports. “Alam ko na malakas na fighter si (Darchinyan) pero may mga suntok talaga na hindi natin inakala. Sobrang powerful talaga ni God.”
The Lunzuran, Zamboanga City-native boxer is set to fight Ukrainian Oleksandr Khyzhniak in the semifinals on August 5.
Meanwhile, Nesthy Petecio secured a silver medal by scoring a split decision victory over Irma Testa of Italy in the semifinals on Saturday.
Seeing Testa ruled the opening round, Petecio heated up in the second frame and fired off straight punches to score 10-9. She continued her onslaught in the third round to formalize her entry to the gold medal match on Tuesday against Sena Irie.
On the other hand, Carlo Paalam reached the quarterfinals of the men’s flyweight division after beating Mohamed Flissi of Algeria in the round-of-16. The Filipino will punch for a sure Olympic medal on Tuesday morning against Shakhobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan.
Ernest John Obiena, for his part, will compete in the championship round of men’s pole vault after placing 11th during the qualification round on Saturday with his 5.75 meters leap./PN
