Ladon scores first gold for PH boxing

Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Eumir Marcial bagged the gold by stopping East Timorese slugger Delio Anzaqeci in the first round at the 31st Southeast Asian Games on Sunday in Hanoi.

A tactical Marcial consistently used the jab to set up his potent right hook that landed on Anzaqeci at Bac Ninh Gymnasium.

Marcial scored on those hooks, prompting the referee to give Anzaqeci a standing 8 count twice in the same round.

After giving Anzaqeci his second standing 8 count, the referee called a halt to the bout and awarded the 5-0 win to Marcial.

It was Marcial's fourth SEA Games gold medal overall.

Defending champion Rogen Ladon, meanwhile, scored the first boxing gold medal for the Philippines on the day, beating Vietnam's Tran van Thao.

He outclassed Tran by landing the cleaner punches. Ladon, the reigning men's flyweight champion, walked away with a 3-2 victory.

Ian Clark Bautista then took home the men's featherweight title by shutting out his Myanmar opponent.

Bautista slugged his way for points in the first two rounds against Naing Latt before dancing his way to victory in the last stanza en route to gold.

Bautista had it 5-0.

Olympian Irish Magno settled for a silver medal, after yielding to the taller Nguyen Thi Tam of Vietnam in the women's flyweight final.

Nguyen, who also beat Magno in the 2019 Games, conveniently used her longer reach to fend off Magno to win gold with a score of 3-2.

All in all, the Philippines won 3 gold, 1 silver, and 5 bronze medals in Vietnam.