Mixed fortunes for Bornea, Bacho

LIGHT flyweight Jade Bornea of General Santos City delivered sharp combinations throughout and pummeled Dimitris Zaharovs of Latvia in a victorious baptism of fire in the Aiba World Youth Championship at the Karen Demirchyan Sports Complex in Yerevan, Armenia, Saturday.

Bucking sub-zero weather conditions, the 18-year-old slugger pulled off a 19-6 rout of the seasoned Zaharov, a veteran of several foreign competitions in Russia and Kazakhstan.

So confident was Bornea, whose twin brother Jake is also a member of the national pool, that the coaching staff had to reprimand him for showboating in the third and final round.

But Mandaluyong’s Jonas Bacho, another neophyte, wasn’t as fortunate and lost narrowly to Uzbekistan’s Nursultan Bizanbayev, 10-12, in their bantamweight clash.

Bizanbayev, a gold medalist in the Sydney Jackson Memorial Tournament in Uzbekistan early this year, charged early and led by four points after the first round. Bacho cut the deficit to three but the Uzbek avoided Bacho’s punches near the end of the fight. June Navarro