HERGIE Bacyadan did her best but proved no match to top seed Li Qian of China, who fashioned out a dominant win in the women’s middleweight class of the Paris Olympics on Wednesday at the North Paris Arena.
The 34-year-old Chinese, a silver medal winner at the Tokyo Games and a bronze medalist in Rio in 2016, scored on long jabs and quick combinations in taking a unanimous 5-0 decision against the 29-year-old Olympic first-timer in the 75 kg class.
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Bacyadan never had a chance right from the opening round, which the Chinese won on all five judges’ scorecards, all the way to the final round as Li proved too classy for the Filipina from Tanudan, Kalinga.
The loss of Bacyadan came just hours after Olympic medal bet Eumir Marcial bombed out in the men’s light-heavyweight class at the hands of Turabek Khabibullaev of Uzbekistan.
The Filipina opened the fight by going outright after Li, scoring on two overhead punches that appeared to have momentarily shaken the Chinese boxer from Henan.
But it obviously only awakened the warrior in the former World and Asian Championships gold medalist as she countered nicely at every opportunity against Bacyadan to fully take control of the bout.
Bacyadan was badly trailing after the second round that head trainer Don Abnett urged her in the corner to go all-out in the final three minutes.
“You got to hurt her in this round, you got to double your attack,” said the Australian trainer.
Too little, too late
The Filipino though, still couldn’t impose her will on Li, except in the waning seconds of the match when she forced the Chinese on the ropes on several occasions.
Still, it was too late by then.
Incidentally, working on Li’s corner was former Philippine men’s boxing team head coach Raul Liranza, who was with Mansueto ‘Onyok’ Velasco when he won the silver medal in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
With Marcial and Bacyadan falling on the wayside, the national boxing team is down to three medal hopes in Nesthy Petecio, Aira Villegas, and Carlo Paalam, who makes his debut later in the night.
Petecio and Paalam were both silver medalists in the Tokyo Olympics.
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