Boxing hero Villanueva laid to rest

MANILA, Philippines — Olympic silver medalist Anthony Villanueva will be laid to rest today at the Loyola Memorial Park chapel along Sucat Road in Parañaque City, where his body has been lying in state since his death last Tuesday.

Villanueva’s remains will be interred at 3 p.m. today following his cremation set at 1 o’clock, according to eldest son Avery.

A requiem Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Villanueva, who brought home the country’s first of only two silver medals in the 1964 edition of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, died in his sleep Tuesday at his rented apartment in Cabuyao in Calamba City. He was 69.

The clean-cut, school boy-looking Villanueva was only 19 and a high school student at Far Eastern University when he lost to Russian Stanislav Stephaskin in their featherweight gold medal bout many inside the majestic Korakuen Ice Palace, except three of the five judges, believed he won.

Villanueva was a protégé of his father Jose “Cely” Villanueva, himself an Olympic bronze medal winner in 1932 in Los Angeles.