BOXER ANNIE ALBANIA IMPRESSES ROACH
By Rene Bonsubre, Jr.
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 24 Oct 2009
Pound for pound best trainer Freddie Roach had a chance to witness the Philippine Women's Amateur Boxing Team in action and he was very impressed. But he singled out flyweight Annie Albania for being cocky and confident. Albania is a two time SEA Games gold medalist. Her boxing skills caught the eye of Roach when he watched the matches of the R.P. Team members.
The members of the R.P. Women's Boxing Team together with Roach were guests at the Sports Communicators Organization of the Philippines (SCOOP) forum held Friday at the Kamayan Restaurant in Manila.
Roach described the female boxers as “better than the boys”. They will compete in the Asian Indoor Games hosted by Vietnam on October 30 to November 8, 2009.
Women's boxing has been included as an official Olympic event and our female pugilists stand a good chance of ending our medal drought in 2012. Joining Albania during the press conference were Mitchell Martinez (60 kgs.), Alice Kate Aparri (48kgs.) Josie Gabuco(46 kgs.) and Nesthy Petecio (54 kgs.). Albania has also won the 52kgs silver medal in the 2008 Ningbo World Championships, while Gabuco won the bronze in the same meet. Martinez, for her part, snatched two world championship bronze medals in the 60kgs class in 2005 and 2006, while Aparri won the 48kgs bronze in 2006.
When asked about the recent failures of the men's team in International tournaments, Coach Roel Velasco said it was due to lack of exposure. Velasco said that the female boxers also need to join more foreign tournaments to further their chances of winning that elusive gold medal in the Olympics.
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