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| Eumir Marcial's bid to score the elusive boxing gold came to a shocking early ending. PSC-POC Media Pool (file photo) |
MANILA--Eumir Marcial was on the wrong end of one of the biggest upsets so far in the Paris Olympics boxing event as the 2021 bronze medalist fell prey to Olympic debutant Turabek Khabibullaev of Uzbekistan early Wednesday (Philippine Time) at the North Paris Arena.
The 20-year-old Khabibullaev caught Marcial by surprise in the first two rounds, banking on superb technical boxing to outpoint him six minutes in.
Marcial turned things around in Round 3 in hopes of scoring a much-needed knockout, but despite getting the nod from three judges in that round, it was not enough to prevent Khabibullaev from scoring the unanimous decision win.
Shawn Reese had it 30-27, while Bachir Abbar, Holger Kussmaul, Jeffery Verhoeven, and Atarbayar Byambabayar all scored the bout 29-28 in favor of Khabibullaev, who is now 2-0 in the competition.
Seeded seventh in the competition, Marcial got the first-round bye only to bid adieu after just one match.
Minutes later, Kayla Sanchez was also shown the door after missing the medal round cut in the women's 100-meter freestyle swimming event at the Paris La Defense Arena.
Sanchez finished seventh in Heat 2 of the semifinals and 15th overall, way outside of the Top 8, at the time of 54.21 seconds, which was a bit slower than her 53.65-second run in the preliminaries on Tuesday night, which set the new national record in the said swim.
World record holder Sarah Sjoestroem of Sweden headlines the finalists in the said event after finishing third in Heat 2 at the time of 52.87 seconds, just a photo finish shy of winning the heat against Australia's Mollie O'Callaghan (52.75) and China's Yang Junxuan (52.81).
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