Tañamor assured of bronze

BANGKOK — Asian Games silver medalist Harry Tañamor barged into the semifinal round of the lightflyweight division as he beat Zhmarlik Starhei of Belarus in the quarterfinal round of the World Amateur Boxing Championships here at the Nimibutr Gymnasium Thursday.

The victory sent the 23-year-old Tañamor, the lone RP medalist in the last staging of the biennial championships in Ireland where he took home the bronze medal, to the semifinal round of the 48kg division.

Tanamor, playing out of Army from Zamboanga, guns for a crack at the gold medal against Nouman Karim of Pakistan in the semis Friday.

Earlier the hard-hitting Tanamor stopped Indon Bonix Saweho via a RSC-CCL (Referee Stopped Contest-Compulsory Count Limit) in the second round of their round-of-16 match.

China’s Zou Shiming and Sergei Kazakov of Russia set up the other semis encounter in the lightest division. The Chinese fighter assured his country of a first-ever medal in the event with a stylish quarterfinal victory over Dydi Rudole of Slovakia on Thursday.

The quick-footed Zou, who caused a huge upset on Wednesday by beating defending champion Yan Varela Barteleny of Cuba, will pick up at least a bronze medal

"Nang mapansin ko na nag-aabang lang siya (Saweho), nagpakawala na ako ng mga 1-2, 1-2 combination. Nang mabigyan siya ng 8-count, hindi ko na tinigilan," said Tañamor, who will climb the ring ahead of Payla on Thursday.

Payla, campaigning in the flyweight class, will meet defending champion Jerome Thomas of France. A win by both Tañamor and Payla will give them automatic bronze medals while gaining the chance to figure in the championship bouts. The semifinals are set Friday.

Tañamor’s impressive win was hailed by delegation head Manny Lopez, also the president of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) and secretary general of the Federation of Asian Amateur Boxing (FAAB), who said the triumph was a big boost to the morale of the RP Revicon boxing team.

"That was a morale-boosting victory. It was the win needed to lift the team’s spirit," said Lopez, who earlier watched in agony the losses of three other Filipinos — bantamweight Arlan Lerio, featherweight Joegen Ladon and welterweight Florencio Ferrer. — With AP report