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LONDON – The Philippines’ lone boxing campaigner in the London Olympics, Mark Anthony Barriga, hurdled his first bout Tuesday night with an impressive score of 17-7 over Italy’s Manuel Cappai in the 49 kilogram division (light flyweight).
With the win, Barriga became the country’s top hope in stopping a medal drought in the quadrennial sporting event.
Despite being the smallest boxer in his category, Barriga defeated Manuel Cappai of Italy in dominating fashion, scoring a 17-7 route after three rounds.
Earlier, three Filipino athletes suffered disastrous defeats, eliminating them in the competition. The losing athletes were swimmer Jessie Khing Lacuna weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz and shooter Brian Rosario.
The Filipino shooter ended his Olympic campaign earlier on Tuesday after shooting identical scores of 22 in the fourth and fifth round of qualifiers in the men’s skeet shooting competition.
Rosario’s performance gave him an aggregate of 110, giving him a tie for 30th and 31st places with Guillermo Torres of Cuba.
Diaz, who was the team’s flag-bearer during the opening ceremonies parade, was considered one of the country’s best bets in the London Olympics. She was able to lift 97-kilograms (kg) in the snatch, but failed to lift 118-kg in the clean and jerk.
As a result, the athlete from Zamboanga was not able to advance past the group round of the women’s 58-kg weightlifting event.
Swimmer Lacuna was eliminated on the first day of the Olympic Games.
With the win, Barriga, coached by Olympic bronze medalist Roel Velasco and touted as the “Little Pacquiao,” advances to the group of 16 from the round of 32.
The 19-year-old Pinoy boxer frustrated the taller Italian with his superior timing, excellent handspeed and footwork starting from the bell in the first round.
Barriga’s fight was beamed to Philippine television by TV5 through its InterAksyon AKTV and IBC Channel 13.
In its report of the bout, Barriga dominated the first round of the light-flyweight match, luring his much taller opponent into a barrage of counterpunches. He tagged his opponent with a right that staggered the Italian, before a combination led to a standing eight-count for Cappai to end the opening round with a 5-2 lead.
Cappai tried to be more aggressive in the second round, getting warnings for hitting Barriga at the back of the head. But the wily Filipino proved to be too elusive, upping his lead to 9-4 after the second round.
The Filipino fighter from Panabo City, Davao del Norte will next face veteran Birzhan Zhakypov of Kazakhstan on Saturday.
Zhakypov is the reigning Asian Games silver medallist, losing to Olympic defending champion Zou Shiming in the finals. But the Kazakh earlier had a tough outing in his opening bout, barely getting past France’s Jeremy Beccu, 18-17.
Barriga has to hurdle at least five opponents to be a contender for the elusive Olympic medal.
The Filipino Olympians have won at least two silver medals and one bronze medal in boxing. Anthony Villanueva won silver medal in the Tokyo Olympics, Roel Velasco, now the coach of Barriga, won bronze in the Barcelona Olympics, while Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco, now an actor, won the second Olympic medal for the Philippines.
Barriga immediately charged in with a left hand lead that caught Cappai’s chin in the first round. The judges scored the round 5-2 in favor of the Filipino campaigner.
The Filipino dropped the Italian with a huge right hook 49 seconds remaining in Round 1, but the referee ruled it as a slip.
Barriga later dazed Cappai with a left hook off the clinch, prompting the referee to give the Italian a standing 8-count.
In the second round, Cappai tried to rebound by forcing Barriga to the ropes.
The Filipino, however, wisely moved away from the Italian and avoided being cornered.
The Italian bullied his way in with excessive holding and rabbit punches, but the Filipino got the better of the exchange and upped the lead to 9-4.
Desperate, Cappai tried to engage Barriga into a brawl in the third round.
The Filipino kept his defenses up, then rattled the Italian with a series of right hands.
Toward the end of Round 3, Barriga connected with a couple of lead lefts before the bout turned into an all-out brawl.
Before the 30th Olympic Games opened, the chances of the 11 Filipino athletes to bring home at least a medal were considered by experts “not that bleak.”
At least four of the 11 athletes have more than 50 percent chance of landing in the medal column based on a study made by Red Dumuk, a panelist at the weekly Sports Communicators Organization of the Philippines (SCOOP) forum.
The results of the SCOOP study contradicted an earlier statement attributed to Philippine Olympic Committee chairman Monico Puentevella that the country shouldnot to expect a medal, claiming that only a miracle could save the nationals from coming home with another big, flat egg.
The Filipino Olympians’ chances of breaking a 12-year and three-Olympic medal drought was discussed by Dumuk and the SCOOP at its weekly session at the Kamayan Restaurant on Padre Faura in Ermita, Manila.
The last medal of the county was won by boxer Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco who gifted the Philippines its second silver medal during the 1996 Atlanta Games.
A report of PNA’s Eddie G. Alinea quoted at the SCOOP session that four athletes in London –- boxer Mark Anthony Barriga, BMX rider Daniel Caluag, long jumper Maristella Torres and weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz — have more than 50 percent chance of landing in the medal column based on their recent performances on the way to earning their tickets to this year’s edition of the quadrennial conclave.
Malacanang, meanwhile, expressed full support to Filipino athletes competing in various sports disciplines in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte expressed the Aquino government’s support to the 11 Filipino athletes who are competing in nine different sporting events at the 2012 London Olympics from July 27 to Aug. 12.
“Buo po ang ating suporta sa inyo (Filipino athletes). Umaasa po tayong magiging maganda ang inyong performance sa Olympics, diyan po sa palakasang ‘yan. At talagang marami pong nanonood at marami ang sumusubaybay, at sana po maging maganda talaga ang performance ng ating mga atleta,” Valte said.
Team Philippines participating in the 2012 Olympics are Hidilyn Diaz (weightlifting, women’s 58 kg), Jasmine Alkhaldi (swimming, women’s 100 m freestyle, Jessie Lacuna (swimming, men’s 200m freestyle), Brian Rosario (shooting, Skeet), Tomohiko Hoshina (judo, men’s +100kg), Daniel Caluag (cycling, men’s BMX), Mark Barriga (men’s boxing, light flyweight), Marestella Torres (athletics, women’s long jump), Rene Herrera (athletics, men’s 3000m steeplechase), Rachelle Anne Cabral (archery, women’s individual) and Mark Javier (archery, men’s individual).
The flag-bearer for the Philippine delegation during the opening ceremony was 21-year old weightlifter Diaz from Zamboanga City, who is participating in her second Olympic Games.
The Philippine contingent for the Olympiad was the smallest delegation in the history of the country’s participation in the quadrennial sporting event since 1932.
The Olympic Games is considered as a major international event and the world’s foremost sports competition that features summer and winter sports where thousands of athletes from more than 200 countries participate in various disciplines.
The Games are currently held biennially, with Summer and Winter Olympic Games alternating, meaning they occur every four years within their respective seasonal games.
“Don’t expect any medal,” said Philippine Olympic Committee Chairman Puentevella, who is also the president of the Weightlifting Association, during a SCOOP forum.“The 11-athlete delegation we are sending needs a miracle for them to win at least a bronze medal.”
“With due respect to the POC chair, Mr. Puentevella could have made the statement to challenge our athletes into doing their best to bring home a medal,” Dumuk said during the forum, sponsored by Powerade, AKTV and FILA.
“But knowing our athletes and scanning their latest performances, either one of these four might pocket at least one medal of any color,” he predicted.
“Or, and let’s hope and pray that this happens, all of them might stand in the victory podium,” said Dumuk, a former National Course director of Olympic Solidarity’s Itinerant School for Sports Leaders, who appeared as guest along with newly-annointed Commissioner Iggy Clavecilla of the Philippine Sports Commission, among others.
Barriga’s recent title defense of his light-flyweight title in the Jackson Memorial Tournament over Russia’s David Ayrapetyan, a fellow London-bound fighter who is the reigning two-time European champion in the 48-kilogram division and the 2011 World Championship silver medalist, can most-likely take him to the medal podium.
“Besides, history seems to favor Barriga in the fact that the last three medals won by the Philippines in the Games came in the light-fly category,” Dumuk recalled in reference to Leopoldo Serrantes in 1988 and Roel Valasco in 1992 , both bronze medals, and the latter’s younger brother Mansueto in 1996.
Also, five of the country’s nine medal harvests in the quadrennial meet came from boxing, including the first silver courtesy of Anthony Villanueva in 1964 and a bronze by his father Jose “Cely” Villanueva in 1932.
National coach Boy Velasco, the eldest of the Velasco brothers said that should Barriga, who is coached by Roel, gets lucky in the draw, he could advance into the medal play in three fights.
“Malaking bagay ang drawing of list kasi ito ang magde-decide kund sino ang makakalaban natin sa opening rounds. Pag na-draw ng mahina-hinang kalaban at nanalo, tuloy-tuloy na yan,” the elder Velasco said.
That and the all-out support being extend by the ABAP hierarchy, led by its chairman. businessman-sportsman Manny V. Pangilinan, and president Ricky Vargas, could indeed spell the difference.
For Dumuk though, 25-year-old Fil-Am BMX campaigner Caluag, a four-time top BMX rider in the U.S., could be the country’s brightest hope for a bronze medal or even higher.
“By competing in at least three Olympic qualifying races to earn his ticket to London, I can see Caluag as the most prepared,” Dumuk analyzed. “I can also see his would-be rivals as already spent after taking part in more than three qualifying races.”
“Another factor going for our bet is the format of the Olympic races which is different from the world championship in the sense that in London there will be no time trial and that participants would be lesser,” he said. “While in racing against the best during the world championship, which fell during school season in the U.S., now it’s vacation time and Caluag would not thinking of his studies.”
Dumuk said if Torres and Diaz can equal or surpass their personal best efforts this year, anyone of them or both can return home with a medal each in their pockets.
“Torres did a 6.71 meters in the Asian championships, which is better than the 6.70-meter bronze medal jump four years ago in Beijing, then let’s count her as a prospective medalist,” he reasoned out. “Hidily can also make it to the medal tally if she can duplicate her 225-kilogram personal best effort. The bronze medalist in Beijing only did 226-kilogram, that’s why.”
Dumuk said Fil-Japanese judoka Tomohiko Hoshina would be lucky to end up in the top 10, adding that long distance runner five-time Southeast Asian Games Rene Herrera’s winning time of 8:52.23 in his event in the 2011 SEAG, was 28 seconds better.
Archers Mark Javier and Rachel Ann Cabral and 18-year-old swimmers Jessie Khing Lacuna and Jasmine Alkhaldi would be lucky to go past the opening phase in their events.
Other Filipino bronze medal winners were swimmer Teofilo Yldofonso, the only Filipino to have bagged the medal back-to-back in 1928 and 1932, high-jumper Simeon Toribio, also in 1932, and 400-meter hurdler Miguel White in 1936.