Bautista blows Olympic bid

THE COUNTRY’S hopes of sending two more boxers to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics got halved last night after flyweight Ian Clark Bautista bowed out right in the first round of the Aiba (international boxing federation) World Qualifying Event at Sarhadchi Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The reigning Southeast Asian Games champion absorbed a close 29-28 defeat at the hands of Spaniard Jose Kevin dela Nieve Linares, leaving welterweight Eumir Felix Marcial as the only Filipino bidder in the global competition, boxing’s final Olympic qualifier.

Marcial took a first-round bye and will take on Abbas Baraou of Germany today, seeking one of the five Olympic berths at stake in his weight class.

The 21-year-old Bautista, who hails from Binalbagan, Negros Occidental, just couldn’t measure up to Linares, a veteran of the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics, in the fight’s most decisive exchanges.

Marcial, the 2011 World Junior champion and a silver medalist in last year’s Asian Championships, battles a tough foe in Baraou, who is coming off a first-round knockout win over New Zealand’s Joshua Nyka.

Marcial is aiming to join early Olympic qualifiers Rogen Ladon and Charly Suarez in Brazil.

The Philippines qualified just one fighter in the 2012 London Olympics in Mark Anthony Barriga.

Boxing produced the country’s last Olympic medal, a silver from Mansueto Velasco in 1996 in Atlanta.

“We’ve given these boys ample exposure, training, motivation and support,” said Ed Picson, the executive director of the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines, prior to Bautista’s fight.