Ladon misses trip to Rio, succumbs to Russian

MANILA, Philippines - Light-flyweight Rogen Ladon missed the bus to the 2016 Rio Olympics when he bowed to Russia’s Vasili Egorov in the semifinals of the AIBA World Championships Sunday in Doha, Qatar.

Ladon only needed to beat the fourth-seeded Russian to make it to the Olympics. But he failed to impress the judges this time and settled for the bronze in the 49 kg class.

In Ladon’s weight class, only the finalists will make it to Rio.

The loss was a bitter pill to swallow for Ladon and members of the Philippine team, including welterweight Eumir Felix Marcial, coaches Boy Velasco and Romeo Brin, and Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines executive director Ed Picson.

Hopes were high that Ladon, a 21-year-old from Bago City, would make it to the finals after disposing of top seed Joselito Velazquez of Mexico in the second round of the preliminaries.

Ladon, a southpaw, held the Philippine flag high the past six days in Doha but just fell short when it really mattered.

All three judges from Cuba, Great Britain and Mongolia had it 29-28 for the Russian.

“We aimed for gold, would have settled for silver but a bronze medal in a world championship is still nothing to sneeze at,” said Picson in trying to cushion the blow.

Marcial, a heavy-handed 19-year-old, also failed to get to the semis when he lost to No. 1 Daniyar Yeleussinov of Kazakhstan in the quarterfinals.

The native of Zamboanga, a gold medalist in the 2011 World Junior Championships, also came very close to an Olympic slot.

“Our boxers earned the respect and admiration of so many here. Then again what we wanted more was Olympic qualification,” said Picson.