Late rallies save day for Payla, Palicte

WARSAW – Violito Payla and Vincent Palicte joined their four other teammates in the quarterfinal round of the Feliks Stamm International boxing championships, beating their respective Polish rivals on late round hits that saved an otherwise lackluster start by Team Caltex Philippines here.

Payla, the hard-hitting southpaw from Cagayan de Oro, fought as cold as the weather which dropped to -2 degrees Celsius Wednesday night, needing to come up with jarring hooks and solid straights in the last two rounds to turn back Kraysztof Rogowski, 12-10, in their flyweight clash.

Palicte, who reached the quarterfinals in the recent World Youth Championships in Hungary, gave away four inches in height to Tomasz Mazur and a lot of punches that fell short or were warded off by the gangling Pole. But like Payla, the 19-year-old Bago City bet found the range in the closing rounds, ripping Mazur with a combination of body punches and right straights to fashion out a 15-7 victory in the bantamweight division.

"Medyo gigil," said Payla and Palicte later in the dugout of the sports hall where the Caltex-backed RP team, headed by team leader Lope Reyna, celebrate the twin victories before coaches George Caliwan and Pat Gaspi ordered the boxers to get back to serious workout.

The Filipinos quietly retreated to a vacant room upstairs later and resumed their training and determined effort to reach their peak form in time for Thursday’s crucial quarterfinal round, a morning-afternoon session where Harry Tanamor, Roel Laguna, Florencio Ferrer and Romeo Brin finally get to see action.

But the road to the medal round appears bumpy, if not shaky.