Thailand on course for perfect gold in boxing

LONDON – Thailand, already assured of becoming the best Southeast Asian finisher in the 30th Olympics, hopes to win its first and last gold as Kaeo Pongprayon goes into the final of boxing’s lightflyweight division where Filipino Mark Barriga took a second round exit.

Pongprayon was set to fight defending world and Olympic champion Shimming Zhou of China for the gold Saturday night (Sunday morning in Manila) at the Excel-South Arena 2 inside the Olympic Park.

Already assured of the bronze are losing semifinalists David Ayrapetyan, who lost to Pongprayon, and Ireland’s Paddy Barnes who bowed to Zhou.

On his way to the final, Pongprayon defeated Mohamed Flissi of Algeria in the round of 32 (19-11), Carlos Quipo Pilataxi of Ecuador in the round of 16 (14-11), Aleksandar Aleksandrov of Bulgaria in the quarterfinal (16-10) and Ayrapetian from Russia in the semifinal (13-12).

Zhou was one of four boxers seeded into the round of 16 where he disposed of Cuban Veitia Soto Yosbany (14-11). He scored a 13-10 win in the quarterfinal over Kazakh Birshan Zhjakypov, who earlier ousted Barriga in a controversial 17-16 win in the quarterfinal.

Pending the official results in boxing, Thailand is currently tied with Indonesia with one silver and one bronze.

Its silver came from Sirikaeve Pinsiri in the 58 kg class of women’s weightlifting where Hidilyn Diaz earned a zero for failure to lift 118 kg in three tries. Its other medal came Wednesday from Sonkham Chanatip, losing semifinalist in the -49 kg in women’s taekwondo.

Indonesia, which did not win a gold medal for the first time since badminton was played in the Olympics in 1992, had a silver and bronze in weightliftng.

Its top shuttler, Taufik Hidayat, lost to China’s Lin Dan in the round of 16 while its women’s doubles team was disqualified along with six other pairs for fixing their classification matches to gain better pairing in the knockout stages.?Malaysia won a silver in the men’s singles of badminton swept by China – in the men’s and women’s singles and doubles and mixed doubles.

A win will give Thailand a perfect run of gold medals since featherweight Somluck Kamsing won in 1996 and flyweight Wijan Ponlid won in 2000.

Its biggest gold medal haul was in 2004 with wins by light welterweight Manus Boonjumnong in the men’s division and featherweight Udomporn Polsak and light heavyweight Pawina Thongsuk.

In Beijing in 2008, Thailand had two gold medals from men’s flyweight Somjit Jongjohor and women’s featherweight Parawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon.?A win over the tough Chinese champion will also complete Thailand’s Olympic domination in three different divisions in the men’s division and three in the women’s side.

The Philippines had two silver medals from Anthony Villanueva in 1964 and Onyok Velasco in 1996 and two bronze medals from Leopoldo Serrantes in 1988 and Roel Velasco in 1992.