FILIPINO athletes Eumir Felix D. Marcial (boxing) and Juvic Pagunsan (golf) kick off their respective campaigns at the Tokyo Olympic Games on Thursday.
Mr. Marcial takes on Algeria’s Younes Nemouchi in a Round of 16 middleweight bout set for 10:48 a.m. at the Kokugikan Arena while Mr. Pagunsan tees off for the men’s individual stroke play beginning at 6:30 a.m. at the Kasumigaseki Country Club.
One of the favorites to give the country an Olympic medal, the now-pro Mr. Marcial comes into his event off months-long training in the United States.
Last December, he won his first professional fight against American Andrew Whitfield by unanimous decision.
He earned a bye in the opening round in the middleweight division in the Olympics and he is looking to use it as a springboard for his gold medal push.
Filipino boxers in Tokyo are having it solid, winning all of their matches to date.
Meanwhile, Mr. Pagunsan begins his campaign against a field which includes Masters Tournament winner Hideki Matsuyama of host Japan, world number three Collin Morikawa of the US and world no. 13 Rory McIlroy of Ireland.
Mr. Pagunsan qualified by being in the top 60 in the Olympic Qualifying Rankings, sitting at 48th. He recently won the 2021 Mizuno Open in Japan.
Also seeing action today is women’s flyweight boxer Irish Magno in a Round of 16 fight against Thailand’s Jutamas Jitpong at 12:24 p.m.
Ms. Magno defeated Kenyan Christine Ongare in the opening round on Sunday.
Meanwhile, weightlifter Elreen Ann Ando crashed out of the medal contention in the women’s 64kg division on Tuesday.
Ms. Ando, 22, placed seventh in a field of 10 but showed promise as she raised 100 kgs in the snatch and 122 in the clean and jerk for a 222-kg total. But it was not enough compared to the 236-kg total of champion Moude Charron of Canada, the 232 of Italy’s Giorgia Bordignon and the 230 of Chinese Taipei’s Chen Wen-Huei. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo