THE PHILIPPINES’ Charly Suarez (in blue) connects against Jordan’s Mohammad Mustafa Alkasbeh during their men’s lightweight (60 kg) semifinal fight. NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
QIAN’AN, Hebei Province, China—Veteran internationalists Charly Suarez and Nesthy Petecio overwhelmed their respective opponents on Sunday to advance to the quarterfinal round of the Asia-Oceania Olympic Qualification tournament here.
Suarez, the brawny lightweight from Davao, dominated Chinese Taipei’s Lai Chu-en, with all three judges from Russia, Cuba and Sri Lanka scoring it 30-26.
World women’s championships silver medalist Petecio followed suit in the evening session by whipping Jennifer Chieng of Micronesia in four rounds.
The judges from Hungary, Britain, Uzbekistan saw it 40-36, 40-36 and 40-25, in that order, in favor of the Filipino.
Suarez and Petecio thus joined flyweight Roldan Boncales Jr. into the next round of the continental tournament which rewards the gold medalists spots in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Boncales, the 23-year-old from General Santos City, pounded out three 30-27 scores in upending Vietnam’s national champion Tran Von Thao on Saturday.
Suarez, who makes himself championship-fit by competing in all three tournaments of the international boxing federation (Aiba), scored two standing 8-counts in putting away his Taiwanese foe.
The second-seeded lightweight produced the first 8-count with a right hook to the head, a minute into the fight, and then the second with a right uppercut near the end of the first round.
“He is still raw but I did not let my guard down because he is quick and has power,” Suarez said in Filipino of his foe, who upset a favored fighter from Turkmenistan just a day earlier.
Suarez next faces India’s Dheeeraj on Tuesday.
“The tournament is just starting and you need either four or five wins here to qualify for the Olympics,” said Abap executive director Ed Picson.
Three more Filipinos will make their debut in this city west of Beijing on Monday with top-ranked light flyweight Rogen Ladon and welterweight top seed Eumir Felix Marcial battling Japan’s Tosho Kashiwasaki and Australia’s Kori Istafanos, respectively.
Bantamweight Mario Fernandez will go up against Yakub Meredov of Turkmenistan while Boncales takes to the ring a second time to engage No. 4 seed Oizhas Sattibayev of Kazkhstan.