Boxing: Traditional medals source in PH's Asiad campaigns
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 24 Aug 2018
With a total of 395-medal haul in the past 17 editions of the Asian Games, the Philippines is currently ranked 10th at the all-time Asian Games medal tally.
Of the Filipino athletes' total harvest, 64 were gold medals, 112 silver and 210 bronze medals. The boxers lead all gold medal winners with 15, followed by the runners, jumpers and throwers with 11 in second and swimmers 10 third.
Other first place finishers came in bowling (7), shooting (5), basketball (4), golf (4), cue sports (4), tennis (3), cycling (1) and wushu (1).
Taekwondo had 4 silver and 24 bronze medals, wrestling had 2 silver and a pair of bronze medals, karate, one silver and seven bronze medals, sailing one silver, chess one silver, dance sport two bronze medals, diving, volleyball, archery and rowing one bronze each.
Football and judo have yet to bring home a medal of any color.
Boxing was first played in the Asian Games? second edition in 1954 right here in Manila where the host country?s simonpures dominating the nine-nation tournament by winning five of seven gold medals at stake.
Celedonio Espinosa, who later turned pro, led the Filipino winners by ruling the lightweight division, beating Henry Wong off the Republic of China for the gold medal.
Flyweight Ernesto Sajo emerged champion in his division defeating South Korea?s Le Jang-Kyo in the finals in a victory matched by Alejandro Ortuoste, who crowned himself the bantamweight kingpin at the expense of Cylonese Hempala Jayasuriya.
Also keeping the titles this shore were light-welterweight Ernesto Porto, who annexed the light-welterweight crown over Lee Sam-yong, also of South Korea, and light-middleweight Vicente Tu?acao, who punched his way to victory over Japan?s Yutaka Kobashi.
Mauro Dizon salvaged the silver medal in the featherweight category, leaving welterweight Pablo Marquez as the non-medal winner in that 1954 Asiad seven-man Philippine boxing team.
Four decades later in 1994 in Hiroshima, all three gold medals brought home by national delegation came from boxing with Mansueto ?Onyok? Velasco, who was to win the country?s only second Olympic silver medal in 1996 in Atlanta, capturing the gold in the light-flyweight class.
Elias Recaido and Reynaldo Galido completed the Filipino fighters? sweep of the 1994 national contingent?s three-gold medal production with the former taking the flyweight division and the latter topping the light-welterweight division.
Twice more our ring warriors saved the country?s Asian Games participation ? in 1970 in Bangkok and in 1990 in Beijing. In those years, Ricardo Fortaleza and Roberto Jalnaiz won the lone gold medal the Philippines salvaged.
Both Fortaleza and Jalnaiz emerged the bantamweight champions then.
Other Filipino gold medalists in boxing were flyweights Violito Payala in 2006 and Rey Saludar in 2010; bantamweight Joan Tipon in 2006; lightweight Rodolfo Arpon in 1966; welterweight Manfredo Alipala in 1962.
Annie Albania won the flyweight silver medal in 2010 in Guangzou becoming the only Filipino woman fighter so far to bring home a hardware in the Asian Games.
Boxing, records will show, has been a traditional medal source for the country in any international sporting meet and the on-going Asiad in Jakarta and Palembang Cities shouldn?t be an exception especially for reason that four years ago in Incheon Filipino fighters went zero gold in the ring.
The Alliance of Boxing Associations of the Philippines has dispatched a team its leaders described as worthy of accomplishing were the 2014 failed ? Rogen Ladon (52 kgs), Eumir Felix Marcial (75 kgs) and Mario Fernandez (56 kgs) along with Carlo Paalam (49 kgs), James Palicte (60 kgs), Joel Bacho (69 kgs) in the men?s play and Irish Magno (51 kgs) and Nesthy Petecio (57 kgs) in the women?s side.
Pairings for the opening round matches was supposed to take place on Friday and team officials were hoping the drawing of lots will turn out to be favorable to the team.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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