PINOY SHOOTERS, BOXERS AND WRESTLERS CHASE OLYMPIC DREAM
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 06 Jan 2012
Filipino shooters and boxers will try to make the most out of their last chance to make it to the Olympic Games this coming July and August in London. The wrestlers, on the other hand, have three more opportunities to make the trip to London but it looks like they will have to take part in only two of them.
The country?s trap team ? made up of Jethro Dionisio, Eric Ang and Hagen Topacio as well as skeet ace Brian Rosario ? will be leaving for Doha, Qatar on Jan. 14 to compete in the Asian Shooting Championships in the hope of gaining at least one of three slots at stake in their events.
Former three-time world speed shooting champion Jethro Dionisio yesterday also announced during the SCOOP Sa Kamayan weekly session that the Philippine National Shooting Association will be sending pistoleros Tac Padilla and Jayson Valdez to Doha to seek berths in the 2012 Games? shooting championships.
Dionisio, the lone Filipino marksman to see action in the Athens Games, told SCOOP members in the forum, sponsored by Coca Cola Export, FILA, TV-5 and UNTV, that all four shotgun shooters have fair chances of joining the London trip for reason that almost all of Asia?s top gunners, especially the best three in their disciplines, have already qualified and, therefore, will no longer be threats.
?Yeah, the region?s world caliber shooters have already earned their tickets to London so that even if they dominate the first five positions in the championships, those who would land in the next positions from, say fifth to 10th places will advance,? Dionisio said.
Dioniso, who has been ranked in the top 10 in Asia in trap event since abandoning his super.38 caliber pistol after emerging the world?s fastest gun from 1990 to 1996 in favour of shotgun, expressed confidence that anyone among him, Ang, Topacio and Rosario, or all, if fortunate, are capable of making it.
He added though that all of them lack of international exposure brought about by lack of competitions in their events. ?The shotgun events were scrapped in last year?s Southeast Asian Games, kaya wala kaming nagging exposure. We?ve been practicing and training on our own though even without international exposure.?
National boxing coach Boy Velasco, who was also at the SCOOP session along with wrestling mentor Roy Camposano, for his part said the Filipino fighters could only avail of the Asian Olympic qualifying Tournament scheduled Marc h 30 to April 8, the only remaining competition to London to look forward to if only to have at least one more fighters outside of flyweight Mark Anthony Barriga to advance.
?Fifteen slots are up for grabs in five weight divisions in that Asian qualifying scheduled in the City of Antana and we will be sending our soon to be formed national team there,? Velasco said. ?We will be taking part though in only the 52-kg class, 56, 64 and 69 levels.?
This is because Charly Suarez, out best bet in the 60-kg weight class has been invited to participate in the World Series of Boxing in India and if he wins there, he will be automatically qualify, ? he said. ?ABAP (amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines) opted to send Suarez to the WSB because competition there is not that tough compared to Antana.
Also up in the ABAP calendar in its ?Road to the First Olympic Gold Medal? is the AIBA (International Amateur Boxing Federation) World Women?s Championships May 21 to June 3 in Quinhuangdao, China.
Camposano, for his part, announced that the Wrestling Association of the Philippines will be fielding in five to six Filipino grapplers in two Olympic qualifying events --- the Asian Qualifying March 30 to April 1, also in Antana, Kazakhstan and another qualifying series April 27-29 in Taiyuan, China.
Another competition open for the London Games is set May 4-6 in Finland, but Camposano said WAP might opt not to send team there in view of the proximity of the tournament to the one in Taiyuan.
?Masyadong malapit ang pagitan ng dalawang qualifying tournament kaya we cannot afford to risk the safety of our wrestlers by joining in both,? Camposano. ?Besides, the third tournament is in Europe kaya masyadong malaki ang gastos,? he added.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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