Given a second chance, Bill Vicera hopes to become the last boxer to win the gold medal in the pinweight division of the Southeast Asian Games in Vientiane, Laos. After it got nearly canceled, boxing officials of the 25th edition decided that this will be the last time the 45kg class is going to be included in the SEAG calendar. And that meant even added motivation for the 27-year old Filipino pug to go for the gold.
Bill Vicera of the Philippines pushes Malaysia's Muhamad Fuad to the ropes in his opening match in the pinweight division in the 25th Laos SEA Games. GMANews.TV
"
Laban lang po tayo sir.
Huwag po natin sayangin ‘yung pagkakataon na ibinigay sa atin," said Vicera, who hails from boxing hotbed Bago City, Negros Occidental. Vicera almost failed to compete in Laos after organizers decided to scrap his event on the eve of the boxing matches upon the directives of the International Boxing Federation (AIBA). AIBA maintained that the 45 kg class is not part of the boxing category in the Olympics, although it has been played in the SEA Games since 1979. Only a letter of appeal by the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) though executive director Ed Picson and duly signed by Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Jose "Peping" Cojuangco did AIBA officials relented for the weight class to be re-included in the biennial meet’s calendar for the last time this year. "Yes, it was decided that this will be the last time the pinweight class will be held in the SEA Games," said Picson. And so Vicera didn’t waste time as he dispatched Muhamad Fuad of Malaysia in Friday’s opening round match,
7-5, a win that earned for him a semifinals date with Cambodia’s Ven Diaman for a berth in the gold medal round.
In the event he beats his Cambodian foe, Vicera meets either Vietnamese Huynh Ngoc Tan or Laos bet SikhamVongpajkhoun in the final. Vongpajkhoun was the silver medal winner in the 2007 SEA Games in Nakhonratchasima, Thailand. The gold medalist, Thai Kaeo Pongprayoon, is not here since Thailand opted to send entries in higher divisions. Vicera was a bronze medalist in the last edition of the meet.
– GMANews.TV 
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