AIBA official welcomes RP back

MANILA, Philippines - AIBA official Herbert Saratchandra Embuldeniya of Sri Lanka said yesterday the Philippines’ staging of the recent MVP International Boxing Friendship Cup is a welcome development as it brought the country back in the mainstream of global competition.

Embuldeniya, who acted as head technical delegate of the MVP Cup and the 2009 Southeast Asian Games in Laos, lauded the ABAP for hosting the event which drew 58 competitors from six nations.

“The conduct of the tournament was more than satisfactory,” said Embuldeniya. “Everybody was content. The officiating was transparent, fair and above board. Ever since Dr. Ching Kuo Wu took over as AIBA president in 2006, amateur boxing has experienced a renaissance with fairness a top priority among referees and judges.”

For the MVP Cup, Embuldeniya worked with 12 referees and judges, five of whom were foreigners and the rest, Filipinos.

“The results were accepted by everyone,” he said. “We worked hard to make sure our referees and judges were fair. We met with them every day during the tournament, evaluating their performance and looking for ways to improve. In the end, we were quite pleased with their overall showing.”

Embuldeniya said the Philippines’ harvest of eight gold, five silver and six bronze medals is an indication that the ABAP program is back on track.

“There is definitely a lot of potential in the pool of Filipino fighters for both men and women,” he said. “But you must consider that a fighter improves by 15 percent when he’s performing before a home crowd. In the MVP Cup, it was evident that the Filipinos were pumped up. Every cheer from the Filipino fans echoed loudly throughout the arena. It will be different when you fight overseas where the crowd is against you.”

Embuldeniya said he is aware that the ABAP’s goal is to win the country’s first Olympic gold medal in London in 2012.

“Who knows, 2012 may be the year when the Philippines wins its first Olympic gold medal and it could come from boxing,” he went on. “At the last World Championships in Italy, we saw that the Philippines had lagged behind other countries in terms of level of competition. That’s because of lack of international exposure. Hosting the MVP Cup was a step in the right direction, to get Filipino fighters back on stream. It’s been several years since the Philippines hosted an international competition. With the MVP Cup, we can expect more international participation in the years to come.”

Embuldeniya said with the introduction of women’s boxing in the London Olympics, the Philippines becomes an instant contender. In the MVP Cup, Filipina fighters swept the gold medals in five weight classes – pinweight Josie Gabuco, lightflyweight Alice Kate Aparri, flyweight Annie Albania, bantamweight Annalisa Cruz and featherweight Nesty Petecio. In the Olympics, three gold medals will be up for grabs in women’s boxing in the flyweight (48-51 kilograms), lightweight (56-60) and middleweight (69-75) divisions.

“It’s not necessary that a national team hires a foreign coach to excel,” he continued. “While it’s true that a coach from Kazakhstan or Hungary or Cuba may be able to contribute a little more than a local coach, it’s not a guarantee for a gold medal. You will admit that a foreign coach could be more believable, that local fighters will do what he says without question unlike a local coach who sometimes gets too friendly with the fighters. That’s why it’s important that fighters and their coaches study videotapes of bouts so that they can see what they did wrong and what they did right. You can’t question what you see on tape. You learn from your mistakes by studying tape.”

In the MVP Cup, Embuldeniya said he was impressed by the way some Filipino fighters adjusted to beat their Thai opponents in the finals. The Filipinos who defeated Thais for gold medals were featherweight Charly Suarez, lightweight Joegin Ladon and welterweight Delfin Boholst. Albania was the only Filipino to face a Thai in a women’s finals.

“I noticed the Filipino fighters resorted to counterpunching which is more suited to their style and that was the key to their wins over the Thais in the finals,” said Embuldeniya. “In amateur boxing, every point counts. You don’t score when you hit the arms or elbows. I thought the Filipinos were more aggressive in taking the fight to their opponents.”

Embuldeniya was a flyweight amateur champion at the University of Sri Lanka. He has worked as a boxing official in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Canada. In 1968, Embuldeniya migrated to Canada where he became the president of the Canadian Boxing Association and was later inducted into the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame. In 1992, he was elected into the AIBA executive committee. In 1999, Embuldeniya relocated back to his native Sri Lanka with wife Nieva Tesoro, a Filipina medical technology graduate from UST. Together, Embuldeniya and his wife have been active AIBA officials for over 20 years.