Tañamor books flight to Olympics

CHICAGO, Illinois – Light-flyweight Harry Tañamor made it to 2008 Beijing Olympics the hardest way, nipping Sherali Dostiev of Tajikistan in a tiebreak and barging into the quarterfinals of the World Boxing Championships Wednesday.

The 29-year-old Tañamor battled to a 4-4 deadlock at the end of the four-round bout, but the Filipino fighter clinched the  victory by emerging the more aggressive fighter.

But while Tañamor achieved an Olympic dream, his third, flyweight Violito Payla and lightweight Genebert Basadre failed in their bids after losing their matches in lopsided fashion.

Payla, the Asian Games gold medalist in Doha and the country’s best bet for an Olympic berth, bowed to hometown bet Rau’shee Warren, 11-25, while Basadre was outclassed by Armenian Hrachik Javakyan, 6-17.  

Tañamor, a member of the RP-PLDT-Smart boxing team, whooped it up with coaches Pat Gaspi and Ronald Chavez after he was declared winner at the University of Illinois-Chicago Pavilion.

‘‘Dostiev was looking for the smallest opener to score. He was very, very cautious and I have to beat him on his own game. I’m really happy to win this one,’’ said Tañamor, who also saw action during the Sydney and Athens Olympic Games.

Tañamor guns for a semifinal berth Thursday as he takes on Pan American Games gold medalist Luis Yanez, who earlier scored a Referee-Stopped-Contest-compulsory count limit over Australian Stephen Sutherland.

Tañamor and Dostiev opted to fight at a distance in the early going with the former throwing occasional left straights against the latter, who seemed contented in putting a lot of distance for fear of being hit.

At the end of the first round, the score stood a 0-0. Tañamor took the upperhand, 2-1, on two left straights.

Bored with the lack of action despite an early caution, the referee decided to penalize both fighters, giving Tañamor a slim 4-3 lead but Dostiev came through with a right straight to tie the count at 4-4 with still 33 seconds in the match.

Payla didn’t have a chance against Warren, who became the first American boxer in 30 years to compete in two Olympics. Payla trailed behind 1-9 at the end of second round and was behind 3-13 halfway through the match. The sizeable Filipino fans, however, booed the judges as Payla took the initiative with his left crosses but could not score.

‘‘Payla gave it his best shot. He made scoring punches that weren’t counted during his comeback,’’ said Gaspi.

Basadre also failed to gain ground against the Armenian, who took control with an early 9-0 lead.

Payla, Basadre and bantamweight Joan Tipon, also an Asian Games gold medal winner last year, will again try to qualify for the Olympics in the Asian qualifying slated January next year in Bangkok, Thailand.