A DEMANDING training and competition schedule overseas awaits the country’s vaunted national boxers in their bid to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games in July, according to boxing secretary general Marcus Manalo.
“We will have a full calendar this year,” Manalo said as the national squad wraps up its training at the Association of Boxing Alliances of the Philippines gym inside the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex before heading for a training camp from Jan. 14 to 27 in Canberra, Australia.
He said Australian coach Don Abnett, the architect of the boxing squad’s successful Olympic stint that netted two silvers and one bronze medal in the Tokyo Summer Games in 2021, would supervise the camp with the rest of the national coaching staff.
From Australia, Manalo said, the Nationals will head to Spain to see action in an invitational boxing tournament organized by its national federation from Jan. 29 to Feb. 4, after which they will have another training camp.
Having adjusted to the European weather by then, the boxers will proceed to Busto Arsizio, Italy to see action in the first of two world Olympic qualifying competitions set from Feb. 29 to March 12.
“Depending on their competitive shape, we might field four to five boxers in the men’s and women’s weight divisions in Italy,” Manalo said.
He added that Hangzhou Asian Games silver medalist Eumir Felix Marcial, who has already punched his ticket to Paris, won’t be with the squad as he prepares for his fifth pro fight in March in Manila.
Marcial will rejoin the team when it trains at the US Olympic training center in Denver, Colorado in April while eyeing some competitions over there, he said.
“After the Colorado stint, we are looking at training camps in either Cuba or Uzbekistan since we have begun initial talks with the coaches of those respective countries. It all depends on the timing and the organizers,” Manalo said.
The national team is also scheduled to compete in the last world Olympic boxing qualifying meet from May 23 to June 5 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Manalo said those who would make the Olympic grade will not be wanting in tune-up competitions “especially in Europe where are so many that you can take your pick. Ikaw na nga ang mamimili.”
Aside from weightlifter Hidylin Diaz-Naranjo, who hoisted the country’s first gold medal in the Tokyo Summer Games, Filipino boxers were the standouts of the Philippine contingent in the Japanese capital.
All making their Olympic debuts, Carlo Paalam and Nesthy Petecio garnered silver medals while Marcial brought home a bronze.
