Filipino pugs target Asian Games as new entry point to Paris 2024 Olympics

MANILA, Philippines – The Filipino boxers are expected to make winning in the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games a priority after the International Olympic Committee assigned it as one of the several doorways to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“The IOC has designated five continental games as one of three qualifiers for Paris 2024,” said Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham Tolentino Friday. “After those continental championships, the IOC has also set two more world qualifiers in 2024.”

The IOC detailed its plans for the boxing for Paris 2024 in a memo sent to the International Boxing Association’s Russian president Umar Kremlev and circulated to national Olympic committees on Thursday, the same day the organization executive board met at the Olympic House in Lausanne.

IOC Director General Christophe De Kepper and Chief Ethics and Compliance Office Pa?querette Girard Zappelli signed the memo.

The Tagaytay City mayor said the other pathways to the quadrennial event are the Pan American Games (Santiago, Chile), European Games (Krakow, Poland), Pacific Games (Honiara, Solomon Islands) and the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa next year.

That is apart from the two world qualifiers in 2024.

“With three qualifiers, we have high hopes that we could send more boxers to Paris,” said Tolentino.

Boxing is one of the two sports that delivered medals for the country in the Tokyo Olympics, thanks to a pair of silver by Nesthy Petecio and Carlo Paalam and a bronze by Eumir Felix Marcial.

The other discipline was weightlifting courtesy of Hidilyn Diaz, who delivered the country its breakthrough Olympic gold.