Full steam ahead for Philippine Boxers

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino boxers, on a high after reclaiming supremacy in the 30th Southeast Asian Games, won’t be resting on their laurels especially with next year’s Tokyo Olympics high on their agenda.

The Philippine team, both the male and female boxers, accounted for seven gold medals, three silvers and two bronzes to beat Thailand (5-2-2) as the SEAG’s kings and queens of the ring, a feat they can build on as they vie for tickets to Tokyo in the Asia-Ocenia Olympic Qualificatiion Tournament in Wuhan, China in February 2020.

“Tuloy tuloy ang ensayo, hindi lang naman SEA Games ang pinaghahandaan namin. Next year, paghahandaan namin Olympic Qualifiers, mas importante, (Our job doesn’t end with the SEAG. We’ll continue training for the Olympic Qualifiers, a very important competition next year),” said Eumir Felix Marcial, who delivered gold No. 7 with a smashing first-round stoppage of Vietnamese Nguyen Manh Cuong in the middleweight finals.

“Kailangan mag-qualify kami doon. Ibibigay namin ang best namin para mag-qualify at maka-gold sa Olympics (We need to do well in that tournament and we promise to give it our best shot so we can qualify for the Olympics and vie for our first gold),” he added.

It’s been a banner year for the Filipino boxing team. Before its golden binge in the SEAG, the squad saw featherweight Nesthy Petecio winning the crown at the AIBA World Championships and Marcial taking silver.

For Petecio, who annexed the SEAG gold and enjoyed her first-ever triumph in the Manila edition, it’s all back to square one in 2020.

“Enjoy lang ang dalawang titulo pero by next year, panibago na yan. Kalimutan na po yan (I’ll enjoy the two golds from the World Championships and the SEA Games now. But by next year, it’s clean slate for everyone),” said the Davaoeña.

The Philippine boxing team is determined to send more representatives to the Olympics after having only two qualifiers in the 2016 Rio edition in lightflyweight Rogen Ladon and lightweight Charly Suarez. Ladon bombed out in the Last-16 while Suarez didn’t get past the first round.

Ladon and Suarez joined Marcial and Petecio in the SEAG honor roll. Former world champion Josie Gabuco won her fifth title of the biennial meet with her victory in the light-flyweight class while Carlo Paalam (light-flyweight) and James Palicte (light-welterweight) rounded out the Filipino champs in the team’s best SEAG outing.

Also chipping in for the Philippine cause were Irish Magno (flyweight), Riza Pasuit (lightweight) and Marjon Pianar (welterweight), who took the silver as well as bantamweights Ian Clark Bautista and Aira Villegas, who snared the bronze.