2021 PH Olympic Boxing Team Just One Short of 1964 Tokyo
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 21 Mar 2021
1964 Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Anthony Villanueva.
Thanks to the complications caused by the pandemic, the Philippines will be sending four boxers, two for men's and two for women's, to this year's Olympic tournament in Tokyo.
Quirks in the qualification standards sent in Nesthy Petecio, the 2019 World Women Boxing Championship winner and Manila SEAGames gold medalist in the featherweight class and Carlo Paalam, the Manila SEAGames gold medalist in the flyweight class to the reset 2020 Tokyo Olympics boxing event.
The two thus join early qualifiers Eumir Felix Marcial at men's middleweight and Irish Magno at women's flyweight.
Marcial had booked a slot as early as first quarter of 2020 by topping his division in the Asia Oceania Olympic qualifier held in Jordan. Meanwhile, Magno had to win her box off for the last regional slot in a separate tournament to get in.
This four-person Philippine Olympic boxing team however is one less than the squad that the country sent to the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics which boxing tournament was only for men.
That boxing contingent was made up of five boxers namely Dominador Calumarde at flyweight, Arnulfo Torrevillas at bantamweight, Anthony Villanueva at featherweight, Rodolfo Arpon at lightweight and Manfredo Alipala at welterweight. Alipala, the celebrated gold medalist in the 1962 Jakarta Asian Games was even the country's flag bearer.
Overall, the country sent 70 athletes and officials to the 1964 Tokyo Games but only one, boxer Anthony Villanueva won a medal, a silver improving on the bronze his father Cely had won in a prewar Olympics.
All boxers except for Calumadre advanced past in the first round of the tournament but only Anthony was able to progress to the medal proper.
Anthony Villanueva was scouted by businessman and sport enthusiast Eugenio Puyat. He later won the 1962 national title and qualified for the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He faced Soviet boxer Stanislav Stepashkin, in the gold medal match and lost in a controversial split decision.
In the opening round, he defeated Giovani Girgenti of Italy 3-2 then aftrewards, Ben Hassan of Tunisia, 4-1, Piotr Gutman of Poland by RSC or referee stopped contest and Charlie Browne of the USA, 4-1 in the semifinals. He lost by narrow 2-3 decision to Stephaskin and had to settle for the silver medal.
Torrevillas defeated Borje Karvonen of Finland in his opening assignment but lost to Fermin Espinosa of Cuba and was eliminated.
Arpon beat Horge Krogh and James Dunne to advance but lost to Ronald Harris and bowed out of the tournament. He would proceed to represent the Philippines in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.
Alipala won by walkover over Al-Kharki Khalid of Iraq but was eliminated by Kichijiro Hamada of host Japan, 5-0.
Villanueva, Torrevillas, Arpon and Alipala would try their luck at the pros but got nowhere.
This year, hopes are high that the country will finally nail the gold through Marcial or Petecio who are listed among the world's top amateur boxers.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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