ABAP targets six Olympic qualifiers

MANILA, Philippines – It won’t be easy qualifying Filipino boxers to the Rio Olympics this year but ABAP executive director Ed Picson said yesterday he’s hoping up to six will make the grade with four windows still open for slots.

The first window is the Asia/Oceania men’s tournament in Qian’an, China, on March 23-April 3 with three tickets available in each of the five weight divisions where the Philippines will compete. The five weight divisions are lightflyweight (49 kilograms), flyweight (52), bantamweight (56), lightweight (60), lightwelterweight (64) and welterweight (69). That means the finalists and the winners of a box-off between the semifinal losers in each division will advance to Rio.

Picson said ABAP is now finalizing the Philippine lineup that will battle in Qian’an. The only sure bet is welterweight Eumir Marcial who made it to the quarterfinals at the AIBA World Championships in Doha last October. Marcial lost to Kazakhstan’s Daniyar Yelevssinov on points and failed to enter the medal round. Yelevssinov, who won a gold medal at the 2010 Asian Games and 2013 AIBA World Championships, wound up with the silver and booked a ticket to Rio.

The candidates in the five other men’s divisions are lightflyweights Rogen Ladon and Mark Anthony Barriga, flyweights Ian Clark Bautista and Rey Saludar, bantamweights Mario Fernandez and Mario Bautista, lightweights Charly Suarez and Junel Cantancio and lightweights Dennis Galvan and Joel Bacho.

The second window is the APB (AIBA Pro Boxing) and WSB (World Series of Boxing) Olympic qualifiers in Sofia, Bulgaria, on May 13-22. Barriga, the country’s only boxer at the 2012 London Olympics, and Suarez will try to earn Rio slots in this window as APB/WSB fighters. The top three in each division will book Olympic tickets. In the lightflyweight division where Barriga will compete, five have qualified so far with 17 slots still available. The Asian qualifiers are China’s Lu Bin and Kazakhstan’s Birzhan Zhakypov. It will be remembered that Zhakypov eliminated Barriga, 17-16, in the second round of the London Olympics.

Suarez will fight in the lightweight division where three Olympic tickets are up for grabs. There are 28 lightweight slots in Rio and seven have been taken with two claimed by Asians – Berik Abdrakhmanov of Kazakhstan and Hurshid Tojibaev of Uzbekistan.

Picson said he is now awaiting confirmation of the APB/WSB tournament format from APB management director Dr. Mirko Wolf. “Only Mark and Charly will compete in this window,” he said. “It’s possible that the top six APB and top six WSB fighters will face off in each division with the top two going to Rio. There’s nothing final about the format. But Mark and Charly are seeded to fight. A country can only send one fighter in a division to the Olympics so if, for instance, we qualify Rogen and Mark, it will be up to ABAP to decide whom to bring to Rio. We’ll settle it through a box-off.”

The third window is the AIBA Women’s Championships on May 19-27 in Astana, Kazakhstan. In Rio, there will be 12 slots in each of three divisions – flyweight (51 kilograms), lightweight (60) and middleweight (75). No fighter has qualified in any division yet.

Picson said the ABAP coaching staff, led by Pat Gaspi, will choose from among Nesthy Petecio, Josie Gabuco and Irish Magno whom to send to Astana. “We’ve in a tough situation,” he said. “Nesthy has fought in the 54 to 60 kilogram class so she’s not a natural flyweight. Josie is a natural lightflyweight who’s comfortable at 49 while Irish is a natural flyweight. We were thinking of putting Nesthy at 60 but decided against it. We’ll just to have to determine who among the three will fight in Astana.”

The fourth window is the AIBA World Olympic Qualifiers on June 7-19 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Available tickets are two in lightflyweight and five each in flyweight, bantamweight, lightweight, lightwelterweight and welterweight.

AIBA has reserved the right to assign a “wildcard” or award a “tripartite invitation” to a fighter who fails to qualify. The invitation is made by the IOC tripartite commission composed of a representative from the IOC, the Association of National Olympic Committees and the pertinent international federation. AIBA has designated one “tripartite invitation” in the bantamweight, lightweight, lightwelterweight and welterweight divisions where there are Filipino aspirants. In women’s boxing, “tripartite invitations” will be given to each of the three divisions.

“We’re hoping to qualify from one to six fighters,” said Picson. “We’re optimistic. We’ve got 14 outstanding candidates. At the recent World Championships, we sent two fighters – Rogen and Eumir – with Rogen reaching the lightflyweight semifinals but only the finalists were given tickets to Rio. Eumir lost in the quarterfinals so he was one win away from earning at least a box-off for an Olympic slot because the top three qualified. Whomever we qualify for Rio will have a chance to win a medal, that’s for sure.”