Salazar, Villaluz triumph

ATHENS, Greece — Lhyven Salazar and Rene Villaluz outclassed their respective rivals to bag two gold medals Sunday as Team Caltex Philippines captured the overall championship in the 22nd International Cup Acropolis International amateur boxing championships at the Sporting Hall here.

Salazar, the 22-year-old slugger from Bacolod, pummeled Georgia’s Tengiz Jumuknadze with head blows from the opening bell to win convincingly, 21-1, in the light flyweight championship, while Navyman Villaluz, 25, overwhelmed Omar Salado Fuentes, 20-13, to capture the flyweight gold.

Bantam Ferdie Gamo, however, lost his gold medal bid as he dropped a 12-15 decision to Australia Justin Kane.

Despite the setback, Team Caltex Philippines snatched the unofficial title of team champion as, together with the bronze medal by welterweight David Gopong, the Filipinos, sent here by Caltex Philippines, the Philippine Sports Commission and Pacific Heights for the needed international exposure, emerged on top of the 13-nation, 15-team world ranking tournament.

Actually, the hosts, who entered three teams won three gold medals and eight bronzes but these were distributed to the three teams to push the Filipinos’ 2-1-1 tally to the top of the leaderboard. France, Russia and Australia similarly won two-gold medals each but they went zero in the silver medal tally. The last of the 12 gold medals was pocketed by Hungary.

"This is a great day for Team Caltex Philippines," exclaimed Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) president Manny Lopez. "This six-man team is virtually composed of rookie internationalists but they defied the odds and emerged winners. I am sure the Filipinos all over the world are proud of them."

The other members of the team, coached by Armyman Vicente Arcenal and Elmer Pamisa, are featherweight Florencio Ferrer and middleweight Maximino Tabangcora Jr. Also with the squad is referee/judge Ernesto Peque and team manager Ruben Roque.

It was indeed a heartwarming Father’s Day for the Nationals as they also earned the respect of their peers who swarmed all over them after the tournament to join the celebration which saw team manager Ruben Roque distribute cash incentives from his personal funds.