Positive note despite Sofia wipeout

MANILA, Philippines — None of the 10 fighters representing the Philippines in the recent 74th Stradja International Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, took a podium finish but ABAP secretary-general Marcus Manalo said the high-level competition was a perfect warm-up for the coming SEA Games.

The team was made up of flyweight Marvin Tabamo (51 kg), bantamweight Carlo Paalam (54 kg), featherweight Junmilardo Ogayre (57 kg), lightweight Paul Bascon (60 kg) and lightwelterweight James Palicte (63.5 kg) for men and minimumweight Cleo Tesara (45 kg), lightflyweight Aira Villegas (50 kg), flyweight Irish Magno (52 kg), bantamweight Maricel de la Torre (54 kg) and featherweight (57 kg) Nesthy Petecio for women.

Five boxers (Palicte, Tesara, Magno, De la Torre, Petecio) lost in their first fight while five (Tabamo, Paalam, Ogayre, Bascon, Villegas) made it to the quarterfinals. Only Bascon logged three bouts, four fought twice. Ogayre was the only fighter to score an abbreviated win, eliminating France’s Riad Labidi on an RSC in the second round.

Bascon decisioned Bulgaria’s Tinko Banabakov and Kazakhstan’s Tankay Yarassyl, both on 4-1 counts then was outpointed by Uzbekistan’s Dilsoh Abdumurudon, 5-0. Scoring wins in their first outings were Tabamo (over Serbia’s Omer Ametovic, 3-2), Paalam (over Turkey’s Enver Muzaffer, 5-0), Ogayre, Bascon and Villegas (over Argentina’s Tatiana Flores, 5-0). Petecio, a former world champion and Tokyo Olympic silver medalist, crashed out in her first assignment, losing to Poland’s Sanra Kruk, 4-1.

“Not the results we wanted but we had some good performances,” said Manalo. “It was like a world championship atmosphere with 38 participating countries and top boxing nations from different regions like Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, China, USA and Ireland. For example, after beating a Kazakh, Bascon faced an Uzbek next. That’s what we went there for. And they didn’t really stop after losing their bouts because the training hall was full of boxers from other countries sparring every day. Not really the best start of the year in terms of results but the plan is to get as much international exposure as possible to be in the best position to win the big ones this year.”

Manalo said an option is for the Philippine team to train in Uzbekistan for the SEA Games. “We’re still confirming if there will be a camp before the men’s world championships to be held at the same time as the SEA Games,” he said. “No final lineup yet for the SEA Games but those who won’t compete will go to the worlds.” The men’s world championships are scheduled in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on May 1-14 while the SEA Games are set in Cambodia on May 5-17.