AMSTERDAM – The five-man Philippine team worked out on Saturday night, drawing praises from head coach Pat Gaspi for its spirited effort during the hour-long practice barely hours after arriving in Milan, Italy from a long, tiring trip from Havana,Cuba via Paris.
Headed by two-time Olympian Harry Tañamor, the Filipino boxers shadowboxed, skipped ropes, punched mitts, hit the heavy bags and did some road work during an hour-long workout as they prepared for the 2009 AIBA World amateur boxing championship which opens in beautiful Milan on Monday.
‘’Maayos ang practice nila kanina maski mahaba at nakakapagod yung trip papunta dito (Milan),’’ said Gaspi in a text message to Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines executive-director Ed Picson, who missed his connecting flight to Milan along with assistant coach Ronald Chavez on Saturday evening.
‘’Nasa kundisyon lahat sila. Handa nang lumaban,’’ said Gaspi, a national team boxer in the late 70s, in another text message to Picson.
In a talk with Filipino journalists, Picson said the Pinoy boxers are rarin’ to go.
‘’They are ready to fight anytime. The only thing they complain about are homesickness and the absence of native food,’’ he said.
To solve this problem, he and Chavez brought with them bottled tuyo, sardines, corned beef and noodles, something which the boxers have been craving for after only a few days of stay in Havana.
With Tañamor (light flyweight) on the team are Joan Tipon (bantamweight) Charlie Suarez (featherweight) , Genebert Basadre (Iight welterweight ) and Jeogin Lagon (lightweight), who arrived in Milan after a 14-hour journey from Havana where they trained for almost a month under Cuban coaches Enrique Steyners Tissert and Dagoberto Roxas Scott and sparred with boxers from Brazil, Venezuela and Cuba.
They are among the more than 500 fighters from all over the world competing in this 12-day tournament, which is acknowledged as the second biggest, most prestigious tournament in amateur boxing next to the Olympic Games and producer of amateur greats like Teofilio Stevenson and Felix Savon of Cuba.
Who will climb the ring first among the Filipino boxers, backed by PLDT Global Corp. under Manny V. Pangilinan and Al Panlilio and the Philippine Sports Commission under Ambassador Harry Angping, will not be known until Monday morning when the first day pairings are made during the drawing of lots.
Pecson and Chavez, along with a few other passengers, missed the connecting flight from here to Milan after airline personnel failed to properly inform them of the changes in the boarding gate assignments, leaving them with no choice but to spend the night at the airport hotel.