Carlo, Nesthy, 8 others go for Paris berths
CARLO PAALAM and Nesthy Petecio lead the charge of a 10-member Philippine team whose members shoot for berths to the Paris Olympics through the first World Olympic Qualifying Tournament that starts Saturday in Busto Arsizio, Italy.
National coach Ronald Chavez bared to Businessmirror on Thursday the members of the team who need to bag a bronze medal in the competitions at the Maria Piantanida Sports Palace E-work Arena to snare that elusive ticket to Paris.
And the Filipino boxers would have to dig deep into their arsenal as a total of 632 boxers—399 men’s and 233 women—from all over the world are vying for just 28 slots in the men’s division and 21 in women’s side in the Games set from July 26 to August 11.
Pat Gaspi, head of the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines, said in a separate interview that everyone’s ready for battle.
“Everything’s on track, everything is in place,” Gaspi said. “Coach Ronald says they’re 90 to 100 percent ready in conditioning and skills.”
Joining Paalam and Petecio are Southeast Asian Games champion Rogen Ladon (flyweight), Mark Ashly Fajardo (light welterweight), Ronald Chavez Jr. (super lightweight) and John Marvin (heavyweight) in the men’s division and Aira Villegas (flyweight), Claudine Veloso (bantamweight), Risa Pasuit (lightweight) and Hergie Bacyadan (middleweight) in the women’s side.
Paalam clinched silver at the Tokyo Olympics but is now fighting as a featherweight while Petecio remained as a featherweight, the division where she bagged silver also in Tokyo.
Eumir Felix Marcial, a bronze medalist in Tokyo at middleweight, already qualified for Paris with his silver medal in light heavyweight at the Hangzhou Asian Games last October. He was a bronze medalist in Tokyo in middleweight.
The national boxers head to Italy from their Lacante training camp in Spain where where Petecio, Ladon, Villegas and Bacyadan claimed gold medals in the Boxam Elite Tournament at La Nucia in Alicante, Spain, last February 4.
The second and final World Olympic Qualifier will be held in Bangkok from May 23 to June 3.