MANILA, Philippines - The road to London, for the 2012 Olympics, will be bumpy.
“It will be met with a lot of heartaches,” said Amateur Boxing Association
of the Philippines president Ricky Vargas during yesterday’s PSA Forum.
He was referring to the country’s bid to send as many boxers to London, and hopefully win the elusive gold.
The first step will be the Asian Olympic qualifying tournament
in Azerbaijan in November 2011.
“That’s our focus, and eventually the Olympics,” added Vargas.
But again, he said it won’t be easy.
“It will be a lot of more difficult in the Olympics where the level is highest. We need to be able to find a way to beat the taller boxers,” he said.
This is the reason why ABAP, following an impressive one-gold, one-silver, one-bronze medal finish in the just concluded Guangzhou Asian Games, will never rest on its laurels.
“The Asian Games was just an eye opener,” said Manny V. Pangilinan, the ABAP chairman.
He said winning those medals in the 16th edition of the quadrennial event will only make ABAP, from the leadership down to the boxers and coaches, strive for more.
Also in the forum were Guangzhou medalists Rey Saludar (gold), Annie Albania (silver) and Vic Saludar (bronze), and coaches Pat Gaspi, Boy Velasco and Roel Velasco, the 1992 Olympic bronze medal winner.
“I saw for myself how China has progressed magnificently. The change was fantastic – in sports and even in their architecture. We need to know what they’re doing,” said Pangilinan.
“Unlike basketball where we only have one team, boxing offers more chances of winning because in Guangzhou we had six boxers. So, mathematically the chances are bigger.”
Pangilinan, through telecommunications giant PLDT-Smart, is also bankrolling the Philippine basketball team, which landed sixth in Guangzhou, tying the country’s worst finish in 1966.
“Minalas tayo sa basketball (Bad luck hounded us in basketball),” said Pangilinan.
But it doesn’t mean he’s giving up on the country’s most popular sport, saying to qualify to the 2012 London Olympics remains their goal. He added that they will continue to find ways to improve.
What made the victories in boxing even sweeter, according to Vargas, was the fact that the Filipino boxers went up against Chinese opponents in the medal rounds.
“The situation in China was different than in Doha,” he said, comparing the just-concluded Asiad to its 2006 edition where the Philippines won two golds in boxing through Joan Tipon and Violito Payla over a pair of Thai fighters.
“In Guangzhou, we fought against the host country, a very powerful host country. On the eve of the finals, I was thinking that I was going to be happy with the silver. But God gave us the gold,” he said.
Abac Cordero, Philippine Star
