RP junior pugs off to Azerbaijan
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 20 Apr 2010
Filipino amateur boxers continue trekking the road towards gifting the country its first ever Olympic gold medal when the eight-man national junior team flew to Azerbaijan yesterday to carry he country?s colors in the President Heydar Aliver Cup Boxing Championships slated April 25 to May 4 in Bacu that country.
The tournament, held in honor of Azerbaijan Chief Executive, is actually a qualifying tournament for the Youth Olympic Game this coming August in Singapore and is part of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines? three-year program with the ultimate goal of winning the Philippines? first gold medal comes the 2010 London Games.
The national delegation, headed by ABAP executive director Ed Picson and coaches Elmer Pamisa and Sonny Dollente, includes boxers Mark Anthony Barriga, Jenno Cabugngan, Ricky Dulay, Nathaniel Montealto and Michael de Lorino.
Barriga is entered in the 49-kilogram division, Cabugngan in the 51-kgs. Dulay (54 (kgs.), Montealto (57-kgs)s and Delorino (60-kgs.)
Barriga and company, according to ABAP president Ricky Vargas, comprise the initial products of a massive grassroots talent identification and development program his association has initiated since assuming leadership last year.
Said program, highlighted by several area competitions, will have its climax in the National Youth Amateur Boxing Championships scheduled January 2011 where the best discoveries from Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao and the National Capital Region fight for recognition, Vargas announced during last week?s SCOOP Sa Kamayan weekly session.
The ?Road Map to the Olympics? , also highlighted by several international exposure involving the RP men?s, women?s and youth teams has actually started early this year as soon as the Philippine Sports Commission chair Garry Angping gave his approval.
?Reason why we at ABAP would like to thank Chairman Angping for graciously approving our request for the PSC to be our partner in this ambitious program to end our thirst for our first Olympic gold,? Vargas, who was accompanied by ABAP chair Manny V. Pangilinan, head of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company and Smart Communications, said.
Beneficiaries of the program, Vargas added, ?the 40 boxers under the national training pool.
Pangilinan, also popularly known as MVP, for his part, said ABAP?s reinvigorated thrust not only includes boxers but coaches and trainors as well.
ABAP, he disclosed, has acquired the services of Patrick Borkowski, former high performance director of the USA Boxing to conduct clinics to national coaches as well as provincial mentors on May 4-8 in Baguio City.
Besides being a former high performance director of the USA Boxing, the regulatory body of amateur boxing in the U.S. Borkowski is also an ex-strength and conditioning expert and physiologist of the U.S. Olympic Committee.
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