High marks for ABAP

SUBIC, Philippines – International Boxing Association (AIBA) president Dr. Wu Ching-Kuo has cited ABAP for successfully staging the 24-nation Asian Youth Continental Championships here in separate letters addressed to chairman Manny V. Pangilinan, president Ricky Vargas, secretary-general Patrick Gregorio and executive director Ed Picson as he congratulated the Filipino hosts who left no stone unturned in welcoming 128 fighters in the 17-18 age category to this bustling Zambales free port zone.

The tournament opened Monday and ended with a bang last night. Four of five Filipino entries made it to the finals, indicating progress in ABAP’s campaign to discover young talents from the grassroots.

“ABAP has shown great commitment and zeal in delivering the best in terms of organization and hospitality,” said Wu in his letter to Pangilinan. “From the first bout, this championships has proven to be a great success. Under your patronage, ABAP has surely the potential to grow even more and bring further luster to your boxing.”

In his letter to Vargas, Wu said, “I have great expectations from Asia. With you on the lead of your national federation, I have no doubt that the future of the continent will be even more promising. I congratulate you for the terrific job you have done on the organization of the 2013 ASBC (Asian Boxing Confederation) Youth Continental Championships. The opening ceremony was very entertaining, a nice faithful portrait of the Filipino spirit. The location for this event was also well chosen. Surely, Subic Bay has a lot of potential. It is a beautiful site that at this day, has good structures and infrastructures and still growing.”

Tournament officer-in-charge (known as technical delegate) Nieva Tesoro Embuldeniya, AIBA vice president of the Women’s Commission and the only female AIBA Executive Committee member, rated the hosting job a 9 in a scale of 1 to 10 under Asian standards and a 7 under world standards.

“The competitions went smoothly,” said Embuldeniya, a Filipina who migrated to Canada and is now living in Sri Lanka with her husband Herbert. “Everything went like clockwork, credit to the organizers. There are a few elements that fell short of world standards like not providing for the carpet on the ground surrounding the ring and a barricade to create more space between officials on the floor and the audience. But those are things that are easily addressed in future competitions. The basics were well covered, including the lighting, the scheduling, the accommodations, land transportation, media coverage, security and lounges. On the whole, the tournament was a huge success.”

Embuldeniya, 62, was given her first technical delegate assignment at the World Women’s Championships in Ningbo, China, in 2008. At the London Olympics last year, she was a member of the competition jury. Her husband Herbert, 75, was an AIBA Executive Committee member in 1990-98 and is one of only three (the others are Bulgaria’s Emil Jechev and Thailand’s Dr. Sakchye Tapsuwan) to receive the AIBA Order of Merit. Herbert served in five Olympics for AIBA.

Picson said ABAP made sure the tournament was up to Asian standards, even importing an AIBA-accredited ring at a cost of $18,000 from Fujian. AIBA allows only four ring manufacturers for competitions – Adidas, Top Ten, Wesing of China and Partners of Korea. The Wesing equipment was brought to the country by two Chinese technicians a week before the tournament and a team of five men took four hours to assemble the heavy-duty ring.

“The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority gave its full support,” said Picson. “ABAP took care of bringing over the AIBA officials including two neutral referees/judges Temur Fedli of Turkey and George Ross of New Zealand. We mobilized a staff of about 120, including over 40 volunteers, and billeted the guests in five hotels – the Lighthouse for the international technical officials, the referees/judges at Travellers, the fighters at the Subic International Brave and Delta and others at the Venetia. We deployed a fleet of 20 vehicles, including a double-decker bus, a coaster and a Mercedes ML 100 for VIPs.”

ABAP also shelled out close to P170,000 for the doping tests administered by the Philippine Anti-Doping Agency led by Dr. Alejandro Pineda of the Philippine Center for Sports Medicine. Dr. Pineda performed eight tests with his team made up of Dr. Charles Corpuz, Dr. Raul Alcantara and nurse Elenita Constantino. The urine samples were flown to Mahidol University in Bangkok for lab analysis with the results to be disclosed in two weeks. The testing applied the procedures set by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The tournament employed 15 referees-judges including the only female Cheang Ng of Macau. There were five three-star officials in the roster - Bakytzhan Bekpenbetov of Kazakhstan, Ross, Fedli, Annamyrat Sahedov of Turkmenistan and Bahodir Jumaniyasov of Uzbekistan. Two Filipino one-star referees-judges, Rolando Jose and Cildo Evasco, were in the lineup. The Philippines has two three-star referees-judges Roger Fortaleza and Dante de Castro of the World Series of Boxing and one two-star Darcito Teodoro. The country’s two international technical officials are Karina Picson and Jesus San Esteban.