INQUIRER Sports

SOUNDS not too smart, but a top Filipino amateur boxing official says he?s willing to beg on his knees in order for the Philippines to have a good shot at the boxing gold in the next Olympics.

Please remember that Smart Communications, through its president Manny V. Pangilinan, has dangled a P12-million incentive for the Filipino gold medal winner in the 2012 London Olympics.

Like it or not, that also speaks of the desperation behind the dream for RP?s first Olympic gold medal.

So, although MVP obviously has more than enough to spend for a gold-medal chase, Smart, through chief executive Ricky Vargas, is all set to make an urgent appeal.

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?You can put on record that we will request to borrow the best available talents, before they turn pro, to broaden our field of candidates to the next Olympics,? Vargas, also the president of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (Abap), told the Inquirer last week.

Pangilinan, by the way, is the Abap chair.

Vargas had just emerged from the PLDT helipad in Lucena, from where he drove to nearby Tayabas City for the opening of the Smart-Abap Luzon Youth boxing championships the other Monday.

He said this idea of seeking outside help came during the 30-minute chopper trip from Manila.

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As expected, Vargas singled out respected Cebu sportsman Tony Aldeguer as the lead source of talented fighters.

?If Mr. Aldeguer, say, has a couple of available young boxers, we will offer to borrow them and include them in our pool of possible Olympic candidates,? Vargas explained. ?We will provide them everything they need, from schooling, board and lodging, training, everything,? he added.

Of course, the young boxers will be officially identified with their mother teams, which will also get all the credits, Vargas assured.

Aldeguer owns the famous ALA Stable which has produced a long line of champions like Gerry Peñalosa, Malcolm Tunacao, Rodel Mayol and many others.

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Vargas said they also plan to approach North Cotabato Vice Gov. Manny Piñol.

Anyway, although everything has yet to be formalized, it goes without saying that Abap, through its president, is calling on everybody to lend a hand in the hunt for the elusive Olympic gold medal.

One great assurance that the new Abap leadership is leaving no stone unturned in the gold-medal chase is the national youth tournament, involving boxers aged 11 to 17, which will have its first championship in Puerto Princesa in January.

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?We plan to harness talents from this tournament, which has truly touched the grassroots, and line them up as candidates to the Olympic team,? said Abap executive director Ed Picson.

?The truth is that we already have possible Olympic candidates among the members of our team to the Laos Southeast Asian Games,? Picson added.

There are indeed recycled boxers in the RP team, but Picson readily assured there?s actually a great mix of veterans and solid new talents, like flyweight Rey Saludar and featherweight Charly Suarez, in the national squad.

Anyway, what they have missed to note is that, at this point, the RP women?s boxing team appears a few solid punches ahead of the men in the desperate chase for our first Olympic gold medal.