Monday, December 04, 2006 Boxer Payla makes last 8 By Jaime A. Frias II Sun.Star Correspondent
SOUTHEAST Asian Games bronze medalist Violito Payla moved to the quarterfinals after an easy victory over a Vietnamese boxer yesterday in the ongoing 15th Asian Games in Doha, Qatar.
Payla, a native of Cagayan de Oro City, defeated Tran Quoc Viet, 35-11 in their -51 kgs men’s flyweight preliminary boxing bout at the Aspire Hall 5.
The Cagay-anon slugger started slow in the first round with a nail-biting 7-6 decision on points in the first round before punching for a comfortable lead on points in the following rounds.
He then started to pad the lead with 10-3 decision on points in the second round, 10-1 in the third and 8-1 in the fourth and last round to move forward to the quarterfinals, where he will face Jitender Kumar of India on Dec. 7.
Before he climbed to the preliminary round, Payla beat Omran Akbari of Iran, 33-13, in the qualification round, the other day.
Four boxers
Four other RP boxers—Godfrey Castro, Joan Tipon, Anthony Marcial and Payla’s hometown fellow Genebert Castro—will fight today in their respective preliminary rounds.
Castro takes on Zamzai Azizi of Malaysia in their 48 kgs bout, Tipon against Liu Shih Jung of Chinese Taipei in the 54 kgs bout, Marcial against Mahdi Suraka of Iraq in the 57 kgs bout, and Basadre against Shah Asghar Ali in 60 kgs bout.
Meanwhile, the RP chessers remained in steady contention for their medal bids.
International Masters Ronald Dableo and Darwin Laylo both registered 2.5 points after four rounds of the men’s rapid chess competitions.
Dableo pulled an upset axe over Grandmaster Utut Adianto of Indonesia in the fourth round.
Unscathed
Laylo remained unscathed, though, but had a win and three draws.
Though in contention, they still trailed a full point behind leaders Murtas Kazhgaleyer of Kazakhstan and Wang Yue of China, who both had 3.5 points.
World knockout champion Rustam Kazimdhanov of Uzbekistan got upset by GM Dao Thien Hai of Vietnam in the fourth round.
Fourteen-year-old Jedara Docena of Tagbilaran City kept the momentum roll as she won three wins after five rounds of the women’s rapid competition.
In Judo, RP’s John Baylon can now only aim for a bronze medal, after losing to Almas Atayev of Kazakhstan via Ippon in their -81 kgs men’s quarterfinals.
He kept his bronze medal hopes alive after beating Hanfi Waleed of Qatar to forge another repechage match against Rauf Hukmatov of Tajikistan. Baylon and Hukmatov were still contending over the bronze at presstime yesterday.
