Five young boxers from the stable of talents of Bago City hurdled their semi-final assignments yesterday to assure the team of final slots in the Kids, School boys and Cadets division of the 2008 PLDT-Smart National Open, Youth and Women's Amateur Boxing Championships in Iloilo City.

Calumanggan’s young pug John Salazar eyes the gold in Kids’ 34kg while Bryan Francisco guns for the title in 36kg.

Mark Sevilla battles for the championship in Schoolboys’ 50kg while his teammate Ramel Tompong will slug it out in the 43kg. Ryan Sigueza also hopes to win the final showdown in Cadets’ 52kg for Bago City.

Seeing action in today’s semi-final bouts are Bagoeños Lemuel Javines in 27kg; Reginald Flores, 29kg; Christian Cordova, 30; and Lionel Ermeo, 35kg in the Kids division while James Palicte and Arvin Bibaoco hopes will be joining Sevilla and Ramel in tomorrow’s Schoolboys’ finals should they prevail their respective opponents in 41kg and 44kg.

Also scoring semi-final victories yesterday were national training pool members Aston Palicte (51kg) and Jimboy Vicera (60kg) in the Juniors division and Michael Solis in the 45kg Seniors’ department.

Bago City sports coordinator Ignacio Denila said all members of the team performed well during their bouts and they were happy to be assured of at least five slots in the finals tomorrow.

He expressed hopes that the nine Bago boxers will prevail in their semi-final bouts today to increase the number of Bagoeños in the final showdown.

The impressive performance delivered by the young boxers from Bago threatened Davao del Norte's reign in the youth division of the national boxing tournament.

Denila earlier cited the Davaoeños as the strongest contender for the overall championship based on their 2007 performance in the Cagayan de Oro edition of the tournament where the combined forces of Bago City and Philippine Navy topped the seniors division.

The PN-Bago squad went home with five gold medals and a bronze plus the overall championship title.*NAB

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