Gamo loses by thinnest of margins to Uzbek rival

BUSAN — Twenty-four hours after getting its campaign off to a strong start, the Caltex Team Philippines suffered its first casualty in the 14th Asian Games boxing tournament with bantamweight Ferdie Gamo losing by the thinnest of margins in his slambang encounter versus an Uzbekistan rival at the Masan Gymnasium Thursday.

Gamo put up a gallant stand but went short in his bid against Bekzod Khidirov, 10-11, becoming the first fighter out in the cold among eight fielded in by the Philippines in this Games.

In the fight close all the way, the Filipino Asiad first-timer went down in defeat as he lost steam and yielded crucial points in the closing seconds.

It was a sorry loss for Gamo with Khidirov coming away with the deciding point with the bout about to end.

Team Caltex Philippines hopes to get back on track in its bid to take the top of the podium again since winning three golds in the Hiroshima Games in 1994 as lightflyweight Harry Tanamor climbs the ring again then light middleweight Chris Camat makes his debut in the quadrennial meet today.

Tanamor trades punches with Chinese Zuo Shiming while Camat clashes with Pakistan’s Kashif Muntaz.

Tanamor and lightwelterweight Romeo Brin turned on the ignition for Team Caltex Wednesday by whipping Myanmar’s Kyaw Swar Aung and Mongolia’s Bayanmunkh Bayanjargal, respectively.

The other RP fighters who’ll see action in the next few days are flyweight Violito Payla, featherweight Roel Laguna, lightweight Anthony Igusquiza and middleweight Maaron Goles.

Meanwhile, teenage amateur boxing sensation Manon Boonjumnong scored three knockdowns in a scintillating Asian Games debut to earn the Thais their second straight win in the Games.

The tall, deliberate right-hander barely broke out a sweat as he disposed of Cambodian welterweight Samreth Ath in 1min 55secs of the first round in a preliminary bout.

A massive head blow, the last of eight which Manon landed, made the Cambodian unable to continue. None of Samreth Ath’s punches connected.

Already Asian champion at 19, Manon said he was "very confident of winning my next bout," a quarterfinal fight against pony-tailed Daivii Otgonbayar of Mongolia.

Otgonbayar had the stretcher bearers in the Nepali corner after he dropped Arjun Kumar Tamang cold 21 seconds into the bout.

Earlier, Thai bantamweight Chotipat Wongprates was an overwhelming 15-1 points winner over Tej Bahadur Thapa Magar of Nepal to make it two out of two for the Thais, who won five of the 12 golds on home soil at the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games.