Marcial, Bornea reach finals

SUBIC–World junior champion Eumir Felix Marcial and World Youth medalist Jade Bornea hurdled their respective rivals from the former Soviet Republics yesterday to barge into the finals of the 2013 ASBC Asian Confederation Youth Boxing Championships at Subic gym here.

Marcial decked Uzbekistan’s Anvar Turamov in the second round en route to a 17-10 triumph in their 64-kilogram (light welterweight) semifinal duel, duplicating Bornea’s 17-10 conquest of Turkmenistan’s Shatlykmyrat Myradov in the 49-kg (light flyweight) class.

The twin victories shoved the 17-year-old Marcial and Bornea, who took a bronze in the World Youth in Armenia last December, into today’s finals of the 24-nation tournament.

Marcial will battle either Japanese Hikaru Okishima or Mongolian Batzorig Otgonjorgal, who were in the other half of the semifinal draw last night. Bornea, on the other hand, will tangle with the winner between India’s Lalith Polipalli and Japan’s Kosei Tanaka.

Two other Filipinos, flyweight (52 kg) Ian Clark  Bautista and light weight (60 kg) James Palicte are also gunning for title berths at presstime.

Bautista is pitted against Masaya Kobayashi  of Japan while Palicte is up against Norobal Otgontumu of Mongolia.

“A great win by Jade and we will cheer for him today,” said Abap president Ricky Vargas. “But even louder cheers for the Abap team that has been working hard for an efficient and properly run tournament. No major problems so far.”

Abap executive director Ed Picson also expressed elation over the win of Bornea, a standout of Abap’s grassroots development program in Mindanao.

“Jade is living up to his reputation as a shifty, wily, switch-hitter,” said Picson. “A lot of people believe he’s a shoo-in for the gold, but I’d rather wait for Saturday’s finals.”

Ahead, 5-3, after the first round, Bornea kept the fleet-footed Myradov at bay  with snappy  head shots and padded his lead to 12-7 after the second.

National coach Romeo Brin, a three-time Olympian, said Bornea is in tip-top shape, can read his opponents well and hardly needs to get more instructions.

Marcial, 52-kg champion in the 2011 World Juniors in Astana, Kazakhstan, continues to adjust to a heavier weight class.

Sill groping for form, Marcial barely led at 5-4 after the first round.

He caught Turamov with that wicked right to the mid-section, however, sending the Uzbek to his knees and increasing his buffer, 8-4.

“I got tired punching in the first round,” said Marcial. “I only got my second wind when I heard the crowd urging me to punch some more.”