Albania hurdles Kazakh foe in Hanoi indoor games

HANOI – Annie Albania used her veteran smarts to easily hurdle her opening bout against Na Zhai of Kazakhstan, carving out a 15-5 win over her 20-year-old rival at the start of women’s boxing action Thursday in the 3rd Asian Indoor Games held at Bah Nanh Gymnasium. Albania, a gold medalist during the 2007 Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) in Nakhon Ratchasima in Thailand, was never challenged by her Kazakh foe using her experience to the hilt to advance in the quarterfinals of the bantamweight division. A total of 50 boxers from 12 countries are seeing action in the women’s class, which is being staged for the first time. “I have room for improvement because this is just my first fight in quite a while. I think I’m just 80 percent for today’s fight," said the 27-year old Albania, a silver medalist in the 2008 World Women’s Boxing Championships. Albania will have a few days off after her next fight on Nov. 1 against Chinese Taipei’s Meng Chieh Pin, who scored a come-from-behind 10-9 win against Japan’s Aya Shimmoto. “We have tapes of the fight and we will vỉew it and make our plan for that fight," added the South Cotabato-native Albania. Albania rocked Zhai with two stinging rights to open a 2-0 lead after the first of their four-round bout. She scored four more before the Kazakh connected on a one-two combination to make the score somewhat respectable, 6-2, after two rounds. The third ended at 9-3 before Albania again became aggressive in the final round which she took, 6-2, to complete the 15-5 decision. “She was tentative in the first few minutes and I told her not to backtrack since she was in control in their exchanges," said coach Glicerio Catolico. “It’s a good start for our delegation and we’re hoping that the win will be contagious on our other boxers," said Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) executive director and delegation head Ed Picson who watched at ringside. While Albania emerged as the team’s first winner, it was 2005 Asian champion Mitchel Martinez who bagged the country’s first medal without even throwing a punch. Only four boxers are seeing action in the light welterweight class during the draw ceremony held at Phoenix Hotel assuring Martinez of a medal. Martinez plunges into action against Vietnamese Vui Nguyen Thi on Nov. 2 with the winner moving on in the gold medal bout two days after against the winner between Sumitra Ngoksungnoen of Thailand and Cheng Dong of China. Flyweight Alice Kate Aparri and 17-year old featherweight Nesthy Petecio take on Jinmei Lin of China and Tassamalee Thong Jan of Thailand respectively Friday while pinweight Josie Gabuco makes her debut against Weng Chan Cho of Macau on Sunday. The Games, organized by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), officially opened Thursday afternoon at the My Dinh National Stadium with a colorful presentation prepared by the host country. The parade of participants added glitter to the ceremony with Martinez tasked to be the country’s flag bearer marching into the 40,000-seater stadium in the company of Chief of Mission Julian Camacho, Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) secretary general Steve Hontiveros and the RP delegation that will be competing in wushu and chess. Aside from boxing, the 23-member RP contingent will also compete in swimming, bowling and muay with the last two events to be held in Ho Chi Minh. – GMANews.TV