Tañamor, Payla capture golds; Arlan drops bid

ATHENS, Greece - Harry Tañamor and Violito Payla more than made up for Arlan Lerio’s loss to give Team Caltex Philippines a couple of gold medals in the 2002 Acropolis Cup International Amateur Boxing Championships at the Platon Stadium here.

Tañamor, a bronze medalist in last year’s world championship in Ireland, opened the Philippines’ final-day drive on a high note, pocketing the lightflyweight (48-kg) gold at the expense of Salim Salimov of Bulgaria on a referee stopped contest (RSC-Outclassed) in the third round.

And then Payla took the flyweight (51-kg) gold by outpointing Sebastian Gauthier of Canada, 22-10.

But Lerio was outfoxed by Artour Mikaelian of Greece, 15-6, preventing a three-gold haul that could have made Team Caltex the best squad in the 17-country tournament.

Still, the Filipino fighters’ two-gold, one-silver and one-bronze output enable them to land a close second to Hungary which finished just one bronze better.

The two-gold production also mirrored the feat in this slugfest by Roel Velasco and Roberto Jalnaiz in 1992 and Lhyven Salazar and Rene Villaluz last year.

"Nasaktan yata sa mga jab at straight ko sa first round pa lang kaya di na gaanong lumaban yung Bulgarian," said the 23-year-old Tañamor, a Philippine Army private from Zamboanga City, who had also won a gold in the Chowdry Cup in Azerbaijan recently.