Photo caption: The Philippine boxing team strike a pose during the awarding ceremony of the 2022 Thailand Open International Boxing Tournament held at the Angsana Laguna Phuket Resort Hotel in Thailand. | Photo from ABAP Media Bureau.
CEBU CITY, Philippines—The Philippine boxing team of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) finished the 2022 Thailand Open International Boxing Tournament impressively with three gold medals.
Rogen Ladon, Riza Pasuit, and Hergie Bacyadan ruled their respective weight classes in the prestigious international boxing tournament in Phuket, Thailand held over the weekend.
Ladon, a 2016 Olympian narrowly edged Amit Panghal of India in their men’s flyweight gold-medal showdown.
He defeated Panghal via split decision, 3-2, to stage a huge upset over the latter, who is the defending Asian Games gold medalist and 2019 AIBA World Championships silver medalist.
Ladon secured the first two rounds by displaying excellent boxing and defense before the two boxers went toe-to-toe until the final bell rang.
Pasuit, a 2019 SEA Games silver medalist defeated Italy’s Alessia Mesiano to dominate the women’s lightweight division while Bacyadan ruled the women’s middleweight division by defeating Vietnam’s Tran Thi Oanh Nhi, 5-0.
“I’m very happy. I expected the experience from Rogen to come out today. As for Riza, she is a very good counter-puncher and a great boxer moving forward,” said Philippine boxing team head coach Don Abnett, who was accompanied by coaches Roel Velasco, Ronald Chavez, Reynaldo Galido and Mitchel Martinez.
Meanwhile, Ian Clark Bautista finished with a silver medal in the men’s featherweight division as well as Aira Villegas in the women’s flyweight division. Bautista bowed down to Serik Termizhanov of Kazakhstan in the gold medal round while Villegas was defeated by Nguyen Thi Tam of Vietnam.
The gold medal haul for the Philippine Team and ABAP bested their 2019 haul of 1 gold and 1 bronze and its 2018 campaign wherein it finished with a 1-1-2 (gold-silver-bronze) slate.
“I think we’ve exceeded our expectations because as you know, our boxers have come from a long period of inactivity. We’re happy with where we are right now,” said ABAP president Ed Picson who accompanied the team along with secretary-general Marcus Manalo.
The Philippine Team will spend their time in district in Saraburi Province in Thailand, where they will setup their training camp for the 31st Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, Vietnam and 2022 AIBA Women’s World Championship in Istanbul, Turkey.
/bmjo
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