MANILA – The Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) hopes that more Filipino boxers will qualify to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics following the cancellation of the remaining Olympic qualifying tournaments.
Ricardo Vargas, ABAP president said the cancellation of qualifiers might do good for the Filipino boxers as the International Olympic Committee Boxing Task Force (BTF) will focus on the boxer’s rankings to determine the qualifiers.
According to Vargas, BTF decided to forego some of the Olympic boxing qualifiers due to time constraints and safety concerns from coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
“This might prove to be beneficial to our cause, since some of our boxers are ranked highly among those who have not yet qualified. I hope we get at least two more in Tokyo,” Vargas said.
So far, two Filipino boxers have qualified to the Summer Games in middleweight Eumir Felix Marcial and Ilongga women’s flyweight Irish Magno, after their strong showing in the Asian/Oceanian Qualifying Tournament in Amman, Jordan last year.
Several boxers are currently in earnest training under “bubble conditions” at the Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna. They are slated to leave for Thailand for a joint training camp late this month.
Among them are Magno, Negrenses Rogen Ladon, Ian Clark Bautista, current Featherweight World Champion Nesthy Petecio, Carlo Paalam, Mario Fernandez, Aira Villegas and others.
The BTF, which took over the function of organizing the boxing competitions in the Olympics, is scheduled to make the official announcement of those who will be qualified for Tokyo Olympics in March./PN
