Belize wins gold in boxing tournament
Good evening, I’m James Adderly and welcome to this fresh portion of Sports Monday. In a bid to achieve gold, the Belize Amateur Boxing Association opted to host this year’s Copa Maya at the Civic Center, with participation from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. First to come up, with the precious metal was Joseph Egan, who beat Mario Huy of Guatemala Thursday night, but we don’t have that picture.
Don’t despair, we’ve got the test at 125 pounds Arlington Pandy proved too much for Juan Carlos Garcia of Honduras to capture his first gold. Belize lost its guest for the clean sweep, when Wilmer Fernandez of Honduras rallied enough to get the judges decision over Clinton Tucker of Belize, who need to settle for silver.
At 165 pounds Moses Sulph had to pull out the big shot in the third round of his bout with Hector Arriola of Guatemala and the effort brought him the golden reward. Horace Cadle angered by a low blow, after forcing two-eight counts on Dennis Lino of Honduras, dished out enough punishment here to achieve his first gold medal by TKO.
157 pounds Michael Soberanis dealt out enough blows to bloody the nose of Misael Quintanilla of El Salvador to step up into the championship circle. And Belize made it six gold medals, when Eugene Martinez at 178 pounds was able to get the winning decision from the three judges in his fistic battle with William Avila of Guatemala.
In the closing ceremonies, Arlington Pandy was voted Best Overall Boxer of the tournament and we congratulate Leopold Smart, Gustavo Torres and the Belize Amateur Boxing Association.
Turning to the football scene, the National A Team of Belize hosted the under twenty-three selection of Panama in an international friendly at the MCC Grounds yesterday in preparation for the World Cup quali-finals against Guatemala and El Salvador.
It’s only five minutes in, when this errant pass gives the visitors an opportunity to strike first and they make the most of it. Belize’s first real shot at a goal comes at the twenty-third minute, but the launch by Oliver Hendricks is off the target. Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth, Landi Pinelo does everything right except score into an open goal.
Do not adjust your set, because it’s not a repeat and again its Landi Pinelo misfiring from point blank range. This time it’s Christopher Hendricks with the clear shot at the goal, but the kicker can’t get the ball to go in the right direction and at the half, we have a 1-zip Panama lead.
Three minutes into second half, this spot kick gives Norman Tilliman Nunez the chance to score and this left foot push does just that to tie the score at one a piece. Panama goes for the win here, but the shot at goal is wild. Meanwhile, the curve on this ball beats Delmar Sutherland, but Belize gets saved by near upright and indeed when the long whistle blows, it brings the curtain down on a 1-1 score between Panama and Belize.
In closing folks, Canada won this year’s Copa Oro with 2-1 bombing Colombia in the finals.
