Rogen Landon, of the Philippines, right, fights Kornelis Kwangu Langu, of Indonesia, in the men's light flyweight (46kg-49kg) final at the SEA Games in Singapore, Wednesday, June 10, 2015. (AP Photo/Joseph Nair)
Rogen Landon, of the Philippines, right, fights Kornelis Kwangu Langu, of Indonesia, in the men's light flyweight (46kg-49kg) final at the SEA Games in Singapore, Wednesday, June 10, 2015. (AP Photo/JShow more

Sport

Eumir Marcial and other Filipinos rule the boxing ring at Southeast Asian (SEA) Games

Marcial, 19, modestly credited a “lucky punch” after he floored Singapore’s Tay Jia Wei in the second round to win the men’s welterweight. Josie Gabuco and Mario Fernandez also won titles.

Agence France Presse

June 10, 2015

SINGAPORE // Teenager Eumir Marcial scored a devastating knockout as Filipino fighters ruled the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games ring with five gold medals on Wednesday.

Marcial, 19, modestly credited a “lucky punch” after he floored Singapore’s Tay Jia Wei in the second round to win the men’s welterweight.

Former women’s world champion Josie Gabuco won her fourth straight SEA Games gold in the light flyweight, and Mario Fernandez took the men’s bantamweight with a technical knockout.

Ian Bautista and Junel Cantancio were victorious in flyweight and lightweight respectively as the Philippines claimed a total of 10 boxing medals: five golds, three silvers and two bronzes.

Gabuco, a world champion in 2012, maintained her winning run in the regional competition when she was awarded a unanimous decision against Thailand’s Chuthamat Raksat.

“I’m very happy and I’m very grateful for this. Thanks to God for giving me another opportunity to get another gold medal at the SEA Games,” said the 28-year-old.

Marcial was fighting at his first SEA Games, but the 2011 world junior champion showed his class with a dazzling display rounded off by a vicious left hook with 48 seconds left in the second round.

“I think it was my lucky punch. I am so happy because this is my first SEA Games and I have a gold medal,” said Marcial, who is now setting his sights on next year’s Olympics.

“Hopefully if I maintain my discipline and work hard, I can qualify. But it will be difficult because I need to go through many steps to qualify for the Olympics.”

Bantamweight defending champion Fernandez, 21, dominated Tanes Ongjunta with the referee stopping it 45 seconds into the third round after the Thai went down for the second time.

Vietnam had the second-best haul of gold medals, winning three through Nguyen Thi Yen in the women’s flyweight, Le Thi Bang in the women’s bantamweight and Truong Dinh Hoang in the men’s middleweight.

Thailand, who had seven golds at the 2013 SEA Games, won only two this time through Tassamalee Thongjan in the women’s featherweight and Wuttichai Masuk in the men’s light welterweight.

Kornelis Langu gave Indonesia their lone boxing gold with victory in the men’s light flyweight.

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'Young girls thinking of big ideas'

Words come easy for aspiring writer Afra Al Muhairb. The business side of books, on the other hand, is entirely foreign to the 16-year-old Emirati. So, she followed her father’s advice and enroled in the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s summer entrepreneurship course at Abu Dhabi University hoping to pick up a few new skills.

“Most of us have this dream of opening a business,” said Afra, referring to her peers are “young girls thinking of big ideas.”

In the three-week class, pupils are challenged to come up with a business and develop an operational and marketing plan to support their idea. But, the learning goes far beyond sales and branding, said teacher Sonia Elhaj.

“It’s not only about starting up a business, it’s all the meta skills that goes with it -- building self confidence, communication,” said Ms Elhaj. “It’s a way to coach them and to harness ideas and to allow them to be creative. They are really hungry to do this and be heard. They are so happy to be actually doing something, to be engaged in creating something new, not only sitting and listening and getting new information and new knowledge. Now they are applying that knowledge.”

Afra’s team decided to focus their business idea on a restaurant modelled after the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Each level would have a different international cuisine and all the meat would be halal. The pupils thought of this after discussing a common problem they face when travelling abroad.

“Sometimes we find the struggle of finding halal food, so we just eat fish and cheese, so it’s hard for us to spend 20 days with fish and cheese,” said Afra. “So we made this tower so every person who comes – from Africa, from America – they will find the right food to eat.”

rpennington@thenational.ae

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