Paalam advances to quarters

MANILA, Philippines —  Carlo Paalam is two steps away from making it back to the Olympics and  earning a shot at the medal that got away in Tokyo three years ago – a gold.

Showing steely nerves, the Tokyo Games silver winner overcame a feisty Artur Bazeyan of Armenia, escaping with a 4-1 split decision yesterday in their men’s 57-kilogram bout of the 2nd World Boxing Qualification to the Paris Olympics in Bangkok, Thailand.

After three heart-stopping rounds, three judges scored it at 28-all with the other two splitting with 29-27 counts.

But Paalam got the nod of the judges, 4-1, after a round of voting to claim the win that sent the 25-year-old Cagayan de Oro native to the quarterfinals versus either Dominican Republic’s Feliz Jose Luis delos Santos or Chinese Taipei’s Lee Cheng Wei.