Boxing draw Wednesday; Filipinos upbeat

INCHEON, South Korea—The Philippine boxing team will finally know what it is up against when the draw for the event in the 17th Asian Games is held Tuesday at Seonhak Gymnasium.

“The draw is when we’ll really get to know who and what we are up against,” said boxing association (Abap) secretary general Ed Picson.
The boxing team arrived here Sunday morning and has already put in two light workouts.

The boxers went through their paces with their North Korean counterparts at Incheon High School gym despite barely getting enough rest after a red-eye flight from Manila.

“We had to share the gym because we weren’t really scheduled to train,” Picson said, underscoring the team’s role as a medal contributor to the Philippine cause. “We’re glad the North Korean team allowed us to train with them.”

The boxing team is made up of light flyweight Mark Anthony Barriga, bantamweights Ian Clark Bautista and Mario Fernandez, light welterweight Dennis Galvan, middleweight Wilfredo Lopez, lightweight Charlie Suarez, and female bets light flyweight Josie Gabuco and lightweight Nesthy Petecio.

While the optimism around the squad is guarded at best, Picson said they have set their sights on, at the very least, bettering the 1-1-1 gold-silver-bronze haul the team grabbed in the Guangzhou Asiad four years ago.

“That, for us, would be ideal,” he said. “We want to better our performance in Guangzhou.”

“But beyond that, we don’t really want to set specific goals,” added Picson. “We just want to keep advancing. Every fight, we want to be able to do well enough to advance.”

The boxing competitions kick off Wednesday, also at Seonhak gym.