Injured hand fails to stop Marcial

BANGKOK, Thailand — Winning the gold never gets old for celebrated boxer Eumir Marcial.

With an injured hand and all, Marcial stood proud and never regretted his decision to rejoin the national team in its campaign in the 33rd Southeast Asian Games despite already having moved on to the professional ranks.

The Olympian heeded the call for another tour of duty and delivered the lone gold medal for the Philippines.

“Actually, to be honest, I was not supposed to compete here because of their hand wrap. Their hand wrap is really unsafe. Here, my hand was injured,” said the 30-year-old southpaw.

Marcial was the only to bring home a mint after three other Filipino fighters settled for silver in the boxing final on Friday at the Chulalongkorn University here.

He defeated Indonesian foe Maikhel Robberd Muskita, 4-1, in the men’s 80-kilogram weight class for his fifth gold medal in the biennial meet.

Marcial made a successful comeback after skipping the 2023 edition in Phnom Penh due to a shoulder injury.

“But I said I’m already here. This is my chance to represent the country once again,” he said.

“I said even if I get injured, even if I break my hand after the game as long I represent our country proudly, I’m all for it.”

And make his country proud, Marcial did.

“Here, we now got the gold medal,” said Marcial, who marched into the final after a sensational knockout win over Vietnam’s Nguyen Manh Cuong in the semifinal.

Team Philippines, composed of 13 boxers, finished their campaign with a gold, three silvers and six bronze medals.