TAMPERE, Finland — Two young brothers from Davao del Norte captured gold medals while two other Filipino bets settled for silvers as the PLDT-Abap national team matched the championship performance of its predecessor four years ago in the 31st Tammer Cup at the Pyynikkin Palloiluhalli Sports Hall here.
Victorio Saludar stamped his class over England’s Charlie Edwards, 7-3, en route to being named “Best Fighter” of the tournament, while Rey Saludar, two years older at 21, swamped Portugal’s Pedro Matos, 6-0.
The last time the Philippines participated here was in 2006 with Joan Tipon and Violito Payla bringing home gold medals.
Top Filipino bet Charly Suarez and Delfin Boholts fell short in their bids to complete a Philippine sweep.
Finnish superstar Matti Koota wrote finis to the lofty Filipino expectations as he masterfully countered everything thrown at him by Suarez to snap the Philippine run by a stunning 6-0 win.
Suarez appeared anxious from the onset and missed a lot of shots in going after the slick Finnish, who displayed deft counter-punching and suave moves that frustrated the Filipino no end.
Suarez’s best friend, Boholst, went the same route. The Gingoog City native could not seem to get his game going versus Ross Hickey and eventually bowed to the Irish fighter, 2-1.
The two-gold, two-silver performance of the Philippines was nonetheless the best among all participants as none was able to come close to the Filipino feat of getting all their four boxers in the finals.
Host Finland and France were second with three finalists each.(pr)
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