WHY CAN'T ABAP CONCENTRATE ON OLYMPIC WEIGHT CLASSES?
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 22 May 2012
My staff and I would like to congratulate Josie Gabuco for the spectacular gold medal win at the past Women?s World Boxing Championships at Qinhuangdao, China! Modesty aside, Gabuco, like most of the Filipino boxers with ABAP uses our mouthguards.
Finally, something solid came out from the many years of guidance from the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines.
The good people that run the boxing programs need to be commended. They deserve a pat at the back for a job well done.
But, from our perspective, we feel that Gabuco?s triumph was a wee bit empty.
Oh don?t get me wrong. Her win was outstanding, but it?s not in any manner shape or form getting the country its first gold medal.
Not by a mile.
Why?
Gabuco won the gold in a weight class that is not an Olympic event.
Therefore, all her efforts and all the support given to her by the powers that be in boxing went for naught- in so far as the chase for an Olympic gold is concerned.
I realize that ABAP need to train boxers from many different weight classes primarily to have competitors in boxing events locally and abroad and also to give them a chance to find a ?gem?.
But will it not be better for the ?chase of the Olympic Dream? if ABAP concentrates on the weight classes that are part of the Olympics?
Forget about moving the boxers up or down in weight just so we can have a participant.
We don?t want another Charly Suarez incident. Suarez had to move up in weight just so he can participate. With that he was handicapped from the start. But he almost succeeded. But how many Charly Suarez? do we have under the mat?
Limiting boxers to ?Olympic events? would save the resources and at the same time lessen the load of the trainers who then can then concentrate on lesser number of boxers to train.
My suggestion my sound selfish and others may say that it will remove the chances of many boxers to compete.
However, if the country is to attain that dream of an Olympic gold medal in boxing, then we must bite the bullet and concentrate on training athletes for Olympic events instead of training them just so we can complete abroad.
But if the goal is just to compete and hope that Olympic gold will eventually come up, and then by all means keep on pushing the same old programs. They may produce another Josie Gabuco.
Gabuco poses with the author.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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