Paalam enters finals but Marcial loses

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Carlo Paalam.

DAVAO CITY (Aug. 5) – Carlo Paalam of Cagayan de Oro defeated Ryomei Tanaka of Japan by unanimous decision to enter the finals of the Olympic men’s flyweight (48-52 kg) division today at the Kokugikan Arena in Japan.

But teammate Eumir Felix Marcial of Zamboanga City suffered a split decision loss to Oleksandr Khyzhniak of Ukraine for the men’s middleweight (69-75 kg).

Judges Diamuid Macdiarmada and Wulfred Olivares both scored 29-28 for Marcial but judgesWilfredo Vazquez (30-27), Bakhytzhan Bekpenbetov (29-28) and Miguel Anco (29-28) got the nod for Khyzhniak.

Marcial, 25, suffered a cut on the forehead in the first round due to head butt but Khyzhniak also got a cut in his nose in the second round.

The 23-year-old Paalam used a hit-and-run tactic against Tanaka effectively to next face Galal Yafai of United Kingdom on Aug. 7 at 1 p.m. Yafai nipped Saken Bibossinov of Kazakhstan, 3-2.