Heart, desire to make difference for Pinoy pugs

The failure of the RP boxers to deliver in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and in last year’s Kuala Lumpur Southeast Asian Games is now water under the bridge.

Manny Lopez, president of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines, even wants these sad, painful experiences to serve as the biggest motivating factor for his wards in this month’s Asian Games.

Resiliency, according to the son of former Manila mayor and PSC chairman Mel Lopez, is probably the biggest trait he and the coaching staff tried to instill on the boxers, fully trained and highly motivated as they prepare to leave for the Busan Asian Games.

The boxing competition in the progressive South Korean port city is scheduled Oct. 2 to 13 with the local boxers, known as Team Caltex, leaving on Sept. 26 to vie for eight of the 12 gold medals at stake.

"The ability to get up once you fall is so strong within the team — from the coaches to the boxers," said the ABAP chief, already at the helm when the country won three gold medals in the 1994 Hiroshima Asian

Games, and a silver medal in 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

He said aside from the possibility of losing to hometown decisions, the presence of world-class boxers will pose as the biggest challenge for Team Caltex.

"We must remember that three of the 12 golds during the 2000 Olympics were won by Asians. So it only shows how tough boxing in the region is today," said Lopez.

The reigning Olympic champions from Asia are Ponlid Weejan of Thailand (flyweight), Abdul Laev of Uzbekistan (lightwelter) and Nishen Munchan of Kazakhstan (middleweight).

But the country’s dismal performances in Sydney and Kuala Lumpur, Lopez said, will all be erased and buried in our memory once Team Caltex, which just went through a series of international tournaments, strikes gold in Busan.

The Philippines also failed to win the gold during the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games with the lone bronze being provided by Eric

Canoy, no longer with the national pool.

"And we’re all looking forward to that moment. These boxers in our team are all medal potentials in the Asian Games and in fact, they’ve already brought so much honor to the country by winning in the international meets they recently participated in," said Lopez.

At the helm of the team under an all-Filipino coaching staff composed of Gregorio Caliwan, Nolito Velasco and Patricio Gaspi are lightwelter Romeo Brin, lightweight Anthony Igusquiza, flyweight Violito Payla and lightfly Harry Tanamor.

Brin acts as the team leader, being a veteran the last two Asiads and the Sydney Olympics while Igusquiza, a square-jawed fighter from Aklan, was a bronze medalist in the 1994 Asiad.

Payla and Tanamor, on the other hand, are considered as the team’s little big men.

The others out to trade punches for the country are bantam Ferdie Gamo, feather Roel Laguna, lightmiddle Chris Camat and middleweight Maraon Goles.

"Madami ng hirap sa training at actual competition

ang dinaanan nitong mga bata natin kaya labis ang kumpiyansa ko sa kanila na manalo sa Busan," said Caliwan, back as head coach after the unceremonial exit of Cuban mentor Raul Liranza after the Sydney debacle.