Filipino boxer Barriga destroys Italian, 17-7

LONDON–Light flyweight Mark Anthony Barriga scored the Philippines first win in the London Olympics Tuesday, outpointing Italy’s taller Manuel Cappai in the first round of the boxing competitions at the ExCel Arena.

The 19-year-old Barriga repeatedly scored left straights and combinations, counterpunching most of the time to score a lopsided 17-7 victory over the taller Italian.

Barriga set the tone of the fight by knocking down the Italian in the first round and later jarred him with a wicked left to the face that prompted the referee to give Cappai a standing eight count.

The first round ended with Barriga  leading at 5-2

Barriga continued the barrage on Cappai in the second round, forcing the Italian to swing a miss wildly as he moved from side to side, forward and backward. At times the right-handed Italian tried to confuse the left-handed Filipino by matching his southpaw stance, only to continue absorbing punishment from Barriga, who widened his lead to 9-4 at the end of the round.

The third round was more of the same, and by that time, there was no doubt as to the outcome

 
LITTLE PACMAN.

Barriga, described by fans and fellow fighters as Little Pacman because his style of fighting resembled that of world champion Manny Pacquiao, arrived in London last week after a three-week training camp in Cardiff, Wales, where he trained and sparred with some of the fighters entered in London.

He started fighting six years ago, when he was 13, in his hometown of Panabo, Davao Oriental, fueled by a dream to fight in the Olympics and winning a gold medal.

He qualified for the Olympics, ironically by losing in the quarterfinals of the world championship in Azerbaijan earlier this year. To win the Olympic slot, he had to pray that his tormentor, China’s Zou Shiming, would win the world championship. His prayers were answered: Zou won and the first leg of the dream was fulfilled.

In Barriga’s corner was Roel Velasco, bronze medallist in the same division in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. Since he was the only boxing coach in the Philippine delegation, he was assisted in the corner by Kevin Smith.

 
Smith was an Irishman based in Liverpool and is the head coach of Nigeria in the London Games. According to Ed Picson, executive director of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines, Velasco and Smith struck up a friendship only a few days ago at the Athletes’ Village.

“We asked Kevin to assist in Mark’s corner and he agreed,” Picson said.

 
ROSARIO STRUGGLES

Meanwhile, te rate it  is going, a third Filipino in the country’s tiny 11-athlete delegation will become a tourist at the 30th London Olympics.

 
With swimmer Jesse Khing Lacuna and lifter Hidilyn Diaz already out of the Games following dismal performances Sunday and Monday, skeet shooter Brian Rosario was teetering  on the brink with just two more rounds left in his event.

Not even perfect scores of 25 birds each to cap Rosario’s five-round effort in the skeet competition could land him a berth in the medal-round cast of eight at the Royal Artillery Barracks firing range here.

 
Rosario, a first-time Olympian and beneficiary of an international shooting federation wild-card berth, lay 32nd in a field of 36 after the first three rounds of the shotgun event where he strung up scores of 22, 19 and 25.

 
The 31-year-old businessman from Malabon came undone after three consecutive misses in the middle of the second round, his firing reflexes admittedly slowed by the chilly wind at the exposed firing line.

 
“I am terribly disappointed to shoot that 19,” coach Gay Corral quoted the 5-foot-10 Rosario as saying. “Hindi naging smooth ang movement ko sa mid-second round, parang nanigas.  (My movement became a bit stiff in the middle of the second round.”

 
Defending champion Vincent Hancock of the United States led the competition with 74 birds built around 25s in the first and third strings.

 
At ExCeL Arena in Olympic Park at Stratford Monday, a devastated Diaz became the second Filipino casualty at these Games after blowing all her three attempts to clear her starting lift of 118 kilograms in women’s weightlifting’s 58-kilogram class. /Inquirer