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Harry Tañamor, the country’s lone bet in the
2008 Olympics, will be seeing familiar faces when he
plunges into action in the August Games in Beijing.
In an official list posted on the
International Boxing Federation (Aiba) web site,
Tañamor’s possible road blocks to an Olympic gold medal
include Zou Shiming of China, Luis Yañez of the United
States and Amnat Ruenroeng of Thailand.
Tañamor fights in the 48-kg division.
Shiming defeated Tañamor, 17-3, for the
gold medal in the 2007 World Championships in Chicago
last year.
On his route to the finals though,
Tañamor beat Ruenroeng in the semifinal round, 16-8,
then made a splash in the tournament as he beat Yañez, a
hometown boy, during the quarterfinal round of the
Chicago
meet.
Also included in the 28-man field are
World Championship bronze medalist Nordine Oubaali of
France, Hovhannes Danielyan of Armenia, Patrick Barnes
of Ireland and Georgiy Chygayev of Ukraine. All finished
in the top five in the last World Championships.
Tañamor is one of seven boxers from Asia
who qualified for Beijing. There are also six pugs from
Africa, six from the Americas, eight from Europe and one
from Oceania.
“It will all depend now on the
experience and preparation of the boxers and the draw,”
Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines president
Manny Lopez said.
Lopez said Tañamor is still in deep
training in
Cuba
and will head back to Manila this month.
Tañamor is also expected to compete in
the first Aiba President’s Cup International Tournament
from May 25 to 31 in Chinese-Taipei.
International Olympic Committee
representative to the Philippines Frank Elizalde, in a
radio interview, spoke highly of Tañamor.
“He is not given much credit, but let us
not forget that he is a silver medalist in the World
Championship,” said Elizalde during the Usapang POC
radio program on dzSR Sports Radio. |
