GenSan pugs lead Abap tourney finalists

MAASIN, Southern Leyte—General Santos City fighters flaunted their might yesterday with four of them barging into the finals of the PLDT-Abap National Boxing Championships at Maasin City Gym.

Angelou Plania opened the floodgates for GenSan when he trounced Bago City’s Jopher Montano, 16-7, in the junior boys bantamweight division (54 kg) semifinals.

Drawing inspiration from Plania’s triumph, Alexcel Dargantes, Liezel Mae Alde and Regel Lou Alde followed suit in contrasting fashions in the penultimate round of the tournament organized by the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines, formerly the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines.

Dargantes thwarted Leyte’s Ma. Lourdes Taboso, 11-7, in junior girls light flyweight (48 kg); Liezel Mae bested Misamis’ Airene Pamisa, 19-14, in junior girls flyweight (50 kg); while Regel Lou cruised into the gold medal round of youth boys light flyweight (49 kg) via walkover.

The 17-year-old Regel Lou, older brother of Liezel Mae, met no opposition following the disqualification of two other quarterfinalists in his division on Wednesday.

Misamis Oriental’s Samboy Lao and Bacolod’s Alvin Sibugan got the boot, according to technical delegate Dante de Castro, due to a technical violation.

Regel Lou, a Bachelor of Physical Education freshman of Holy Trinity College in GenSan, will dispute the gold with Team Pacman Sarangani’s Aldren Moreno, a 20-8 victor over Mati’s Leonard Bulacan.

Abap executive director Ed Picson thanked Maasin City Mayor Maloney Samaco for the successful hosting of the annual event aimed at discovering new talents for the national pool.

OTHER FINALISTS: Hipolito Banal Jr. (48 kg), John Patrick Dinolan (48 kg), Michael John Bahena (50 kg), Mario Bautista (46 kg), Jeffrey Estella (46 kg), Levawil Savines (52 kg), Presco Carcosia (52 kg).