Executive director Ed Picson announced the line-up which will be composed of Rogen Ladon (light flyweight, 49 kg.), Roldan Boncales (flyweight, 52 kg.), Mario Fernandez (bantamweight, 56 kg.), Charly Suarez (60 kg.), Eumir Felix Marcial (welterweight, 69 kg.) and Nesthy Petecio (women's flyweight, 51 kg.).
The six were part of a group of 14 boxers who went on a whirlwind 18-day training camp in 4 cities in the West Coast of the United States: Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas and drew praise from American coaches for their impressive showing.
The roster was based on recommendations from the four coaches who traveled with the group: Deputy Head Coach Nolito Velasco, Women's Head Coach Roel Velasco, 3-star AIBA coach and 3-time Olympian Romeo Brin and the only female coach in ABAP, Mitchel Martinez.
ABAP Head Coach Pat Gaspi was unable to make the trip as he was in Manchester, England attending the AIBA Coaches' Commission meeting where he is a member. Gaspi is the chairman of the Asian Coaches Commission.
By all accounts the ABAP Olympic boxing hopefuls benefited from what delegation head Ed Picson said was “definitely a rewarding trip.”
The roster of 15 boxers which included three females trained at the gym of “Dodong” Donaire, father/trainer of five division world champion Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire in Oakland, California, the University of San Francisco Gym and the Top Rank and Fight Club Gyms in Las Vegas over a three week period.
Picson told The Standard that “the boxers are peaking at the right time” as they prepare for the Asia-Oceania Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Qan’ An, China from March 23 to April 3.
Although some boxers were hit by episodes of coughs and colds because it was really cold especially in Las Vegas, it didn’t stop them from training.
Nonito Donaire helped his trainer/father in giving the boxers some drills and kept urging the boxers on while training.
Picson said it was “really very productive” as Nonito gave the fighters a motivational/inspirational talk which was set to last 10 minutes but went on for over 30 minutes “because Nonito spoke from the heart.”
Donaire told the boxers “there is nothing you cannot do if you put your heart into it. You have to believe in yourself because if you don’t, who else will.”
The consensus after the workouts and sparring sessions in the gyms was that welterweight Eumir Felix Marcial was the most impressive. Heb showed a lot of determination and all around boxing skills and punching power.
Picson told us from Oakland to Los Angeles and even Las Vegas, Marcial “really stood out. Everyone was all praises including Top Rank’s veteran Lee Samuels who saw Marcial on the heavy bag and kept asking “who’s that guy. Is that your star?” But Picson made it clear there were no stars on the team on determined, talented and hard-working boxers although the overwhelming consensus was that Marcial “is the Philippines best prospect.”
While sparring against three tough opponents at “Dodong” Donaire’s boxing and fitness gym in Oakland, Marcial dropped his first two sparring partners in the first round and even though he wasn’t able to drop the third, extremely strong and resilient opponent, he punished him badly.
Picson allayed fears of the Asia-Oceania qualifying tournament being too close to the boxers return from the US last March 15 pointing out that they will leave for China on the 23 rd and the first fights will probably take place on the 25th or the 26th, depending on the draw.
ABAP president Ricky Vargas said the training camp was “just the initial phase in the preparations for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. He said “We want to give our boxers the best opportunities to qualify and if they do we have even bigger plans for their Olympic medal quest.
After the Philippine Sports Commission and the POC turned down a request for P3 million to fund the trip , the MVP Sports Foundation bankrolled the training stint.
The ABAP Sports Science team composed of Nutritionist Arabella Ripoll, Strength and Conditioning coach Mark Limbaga, Sports Psychologist Marcus Manalo and Performance Analyst Jeff Pagaduan were also part of the evaluation process as were the rest of the national coaching staff who figured in the boxers' training in Baguio City prior to the US trip.
ABAP President Ricky Vargas, who is on a business trip abroad, expressed optimism and excitement over the line-up.
Vargas, in a text message from San Francisco said "This is a potent group of dynamic boxers who trained long and hard, are properly motivated and highly inspired. We expect positive results from them in China next week. Godspeed and cheers to the team!"
The Olympic qualifying tournament includes all Asian countries and Oceania which is composed of, among others- Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and other Pacific islands.
242 male boxers and 55 female pugilists are registered for the qualifiers.
Picson hastened to add that those who were not named to the China tourney are not out of the running yet. He said "There are 3 more qualifiers the other boxers may be entered in: the Women's World Championships (Kazakhstan) and APB/WSB qualifiers (Bulgaria) in May and the Final AOB qualifiers (Azerbaijan) in June. We will send participants there".
Should more than one Filipino boxer qualify in a particular weight category, ABAP will have to choose only one entry to the Summer Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro in August as mandated by the International Boxing Association (AIBA).
It is considered significant that the Australian, Papua New Guinea and Malaysian teams spent the last two weeks of their own preparations for the tournament at the ABAP Training Center in Baguio City.
However, the Philippine aspirants had already left for the US when the foreign contingents arrived in the Summer Capital.
The age average of the Filipino boxers is 23 with veteran Suarez the oldest at 28 and hard-hitting welterweight Marcial the youngest at 19.
Source: Ronnie Nathanielsz of philboxing.com
