Thursday, December 14, 2006 Tipon's gold makes it 3 for team RP By Mike L. LimpagSun.Star Staff Reporter
JOAN Tipon needed only two solid rounds to hand the Philippines its third gold medal after winning the bantamweight final in the Asian Games at the Aspire Hall 5 last night.
Tipon defeated Korea’s Han Soon Chul, 21-10, for the country’s third Asiad gold in front of a highly-charged and vocal Filipino crowd, who counted out the final 10 seconds of the bout.
The gold medal earned for the 27-year-old Asiad debutant a cool P1.5 million in incentives. P1 million as stipulated in Republic Act 9064 and P500,000 from added incentives.
The Philippines is now 17th over all in the quadrennial meet with a haul of 3-5-7. Antonio Gabica and Violito Payla won their respective finals in 9-ball and boxing for the first two gold medals, while Marna Pabillore added a silver late Tuesday night in the 53-kg. division kumite of Karatedo.
Tipon, who defeated Tangtong Klongjan for the Southeast Asian Games gold last year and Olympic silver medalist Worapo Petchkoom in a close semifinal match two days ago, started cautiously in the fight, waiting until the 1:32 mark to score the first point.
Unwanted ads
Meanwhile, fight fans were treated to some unwanted ads as the first 30 seconds of the second and third round wasn’t aired in favor of commercials. Fortunately, the ads stopped at the end of the third round.
The Korean quickly leveled the count on a counter, before Tipon’s body shots and counter attack against the taller foe had him up 6-2 at the end of the first round.
Tipon again started strong in the second round and a solid right to the head had him safely 9-3, before the Korean scored on a punch to the body.
As if to show that he wasn’t bothered by the punch Tipon began showboating, raising both hands up as if to invite the Korean to dig in.
Match delay
Late in the round both fighters mixed it up and the Pinoy got the better of the exchange as he led, 12-5, at the end of the round.
Some thirty seconds into the third round, Tipon got backed into a corner but got out okay as he padded the lead 16-8.
The Pinoy boxer got warned for delaying the match at the start of the round, when he failed to go to the center of the ring after the bell. However, it didn’t affect him as he gamely danced around the taller Korean, while counter attacking his way out of trouble for the 21-10 win.
