Pinoy Wrestlers target SEA Games Glory
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 18 Mar 2011
Grabbing the overall championship in their event will be the Filipino wrestlers? target in the coming 2011 Southeast Asian Games this November in Indonesia. This was what the members of the national team and their coaches vowed during yesterday?s SCOOP Sa Kamayan weekly session at the Kamayan Restaurant-Padre Faura.
?If with a depleted lineup we were able to end up second overall in Laos the last time around with only three gold medals, winning the top position is very very much doable,? coach Carlomagno Canta boldly predicted during the session, sponsored by Coca Cola Philippines, TV5 and FILA.
Laos SEA Games gold medalist Margarito Angana agreed saying this year?s team has been preparing in earnest since January 2010 and is ready to do battle this early.
The non-inclusion of veteran internationalists Roxel Tandog and Melchor Tumasis in the 2009 squad, hampered the country?s campaign that year, chorused Canta and Angana.
Tumasis, in frustration turned into coaching, while Tandog is still aspiring for a seat in the national squad.
?Although the team has not yet been formed officially, those who can eventually make it are alreqady raring to go to Indonesia with one aim in mind ? win the overall title in wrestling,? Angana, who along with Jason Balabal and brother Jimmy accounted for the country?s three-gold medal haul two years ago, said in Tagalog.
?Jason, who brought home a gold in his rookjie year, is much much stronger this year, while Jimmy still looks unbeatable in his division,? Canta butted in. ?We can form a much better team this year than the last time around simply because, unlike in 2009, our athletes have been receiving our the support they ought to receive from both the wrestling association and the Philippine Sports Commission.
?Noon kasi, right after the SEA Games, the team was disbanded, pero ngayon halos karamihan na-reinstate, while the papers of the rest, we were told, are already being worked out,? Canta, who appeared at the session with coach Violeto Agustin and national training pool member Robertson Torres.
Agustin, for his part, said in the absence of international exposure, the national training pool, numbering 21 in all, have been working out daily, except Sunday for one and-a-half years.
Margarito and Jimmy Angana and Balabal as defending SEA Games champions in their divisions, have been seeded to make it to the team although former Tandog and former nationals Paulo delos Santos, Michael Baletin, Jerry Angana and Roque Mana-ay are most-likely to regain their seats in the men?s team.
Veteran internationalists Christina and Maribel Jambora are cinch to make it to the women?s squad
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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