Boxers employ ‘secret trick’ to put away 5 golds

SINGAPORE—The country’s five boxing golds in the Southeast Asian Games was the result of a “secret trick” implemented by the coaching staff that required the fighters to move forward as they loosed punches.

Alliance of Boxing Associations of the Philippines executive director Ed Picson said the ruse helped the Filipinos  get the judges’ nod in the  new 10-point must system that is being implemented  here.

Nineteen-year-old Eumir Felix Marcial followed the instruction  to the letter  in pulling off a resounding second round knockout of arch nemesis Jia Wei Tay of Singapore for the men’s welterweight gold medal.

In capping the country’s best ring finish since 2005 in Manila,  Marcial mowed down his rival with a barrage of punches to underscore his superiority and dominance.

“Ang turo sa akin pabagsakin ko na talaga, (My coaches said I should knock him down because he’s from the host country),” said the Zamboanga City native who also avenged his loss last year to Tay, who broke his cheekbone.

Also producing gold results for the Philippines using the same technique was Josie Gabuco who enshrined herself in  the SEA Games annals for winning a fourth straight gold medal.

The other champion boxers were Mario Fernandez in men’s bantamweight, Junel Cantancio in men’s lightweight and Ian Clarck Bautista in men’s flyweight.

“Actually the losses of Irish (Magno) and Nesthy (Petecio) were very close, there were tied with their Vietnamese opponents and there was a countback,” said Picson.

Flyweight Magno and bantamweight Petecio dropped 2-1 decisions in the finals as well as Rogen Ladon, who lost steam in his men’s light flyweight final bout against Kornelis Langu of Indonesia.

“We were in high spirits coming to the finals.  I guess when you’re in the gold medal round  everyone  has an adrenalin rush,” said Picson, whose fighters finished with a tournament best 5-3-2 gold-silver-bronze medal haul. The country wound up with a 3-4-3 medal harvest two years ago in Burma (Myanmar).