Pugs endure 19-hour ordeal

Kaunas, Lithuania – A half-healthy Team Caltex Philippines arrived here Wednesday from Helsinki after four plane changes and a 19-hour trip that included three flight delays to compete in the 2002 Algirdas Socikas Boxing Championships in this Baltic country, once the most progressive republic of the former Soviet Union.

The six-man boxing team, sponsored by Caltex Philippines and supported by the Philippine Sports Commission, Pacific Heights and Revicon, is competing in the lower six weight divisions of the 12-event competitions which drew 83 boxers from 16 national teams.

"Definitely, this tournament is tougher than the Gee Bee tournament in Helsinki because stronger boxers from Russia, Germany, Bulgaria and other Eastern European countries are competing here," said Manny Lopez, boxing chief and delegation head.

Team Caltex Philippines earned one gold courtesy of flyweight Violito Payla, three silvers from flyweight Harry Tanamor, featherweight Roel Laguna and lightwelterweight Romeo Brin and a bronze from lightweight Anthony Igusquiza to finish fourth in the Helsinki tournament last week. Bantamweight Vincent Palicte did not reach the medal round.

Host Lithuania is fielding 11 in Team A and six in Team B. Russia has 13 boxers in three teams. Germany has eight, nearby Latvia seven and Ukraine, Belarus and Estonia six each.

The rest of the countries are France (5), Slovakia (4), Greece (2), Denmark (2), and Belarus-B (1). The RP delegation went through a harrowing experience taking an unusually long detour from Helsinki to Lithuania, after a Manila travel agency booked the team for stopovers in Paris in Central Europe and Oslo in Northern Europe for the trip to Lithuania in Eastern Europe reportedly to cut down on cost.

Lopez had to seek assistance from travel agencies and boxing organizers in Helsinki and Lithuania when seven members of the team were not booked for the Helsinki-Paris-Oslo flight.

The travel agency also left it up to the team’s officials to book the entire team’s Oslo-Lithuania flight as well as the return flight from Lithuania to Hamburg, Germany on April 14. From Hamburg the team is to fly to Paris again for the flight back to the Philippines.

Lopez also had to use his credit card to settle the amount of US$3,234 required by the travel agency in Lithuania for the Oslo-Kaunas-Hamburg connecting flights.

After three delays in the flight schedule in each stopover, the Nationals, who left Helsinki at 5 a.m., finally arrived here at past 12 midnight. Two boxers are also stepping into the ring Thursday with injuries. Palicte is stll nursing a painful wrist injury he first sustained in the Azerbaijian tournament last month and which worsened in the Gee Bee tournament in Helsinki.

Tanamor also suffered a wrist injury in the semifinals of the same tournament.

Despite the handicaps, the Nationals, under head coach Nolito "Boy" Velasco and assistant coach Pat Gaspi, are raring to show their wares in the tournament which has drawn top teams mostly from Eastern Europe. "Here we will get a taste of high-caliber European boxing," said Lopez.

"Definitely, this tournament will be a factor in the selection of the national team for the forthcoming Asian Games at the same time that it serves as part of our long-range preparations for the Olympics."

Referring to his wards’ long journey, Lopez said the Olympic champions from Cuba usually travel all over the world to gain exposure, competing in over 200 tournaments – compared to 10 for the RP boxers as part of their training.

"The Cubans have only two or three days rest in between long journeys. It’s part of the Cubans’ training, and it’s part of the discipline of our boxers," said Velasco.