Nat’l boxers window for Rio Olympics closing, says Garcia

FILE — FILIPINO lightweight Charly Suarez (in red) tags Iraq’s Ammar Jabbar Hassan with a left during their quarterfinal bout at the 17th Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, on Monday. The veteran Suarez prevailed on points. NINO JESUS ORBETA

Philippine Sports Commission chair Richie Garcia said the ongoing Asia-Oceania Olympic Qualifying tournament in Qian’An, China, would be the best chance for the national boxers to qualify for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics with less than five months left before the world’s biggest sports spectacle.

“If we don’t make it here (in China), there would be little time for us to prepare should we qualify in the last qualifier,” said Garcia.

The final tournament for Olympic aspirants is the Aiba World Olympic Qualifier on June 7 to 19 in Baku, Azerbaijan, roughly seven weeks before the Rio Games on Aug. 5 to 21.

“But as we go through the latter stages, we grow stronger since the best boxers in the world will no longer compete there,” said Garcia.

A total of 129 boxers, including nine female, from 43 countries have already qualified, with Cuba securing a slot for each of the 10 weight categories for men.

“Boxers from other countries who qualified have been preparing as early as last year. In our case, we’re still focused in the qualifying tournaments,” said Garcia.

There are still 130 slots open out of the 250 spots in the men’s division and 27 out of 36 for female.

Two more tournaments—the Aiba Pro Boxing and World Series Boxing Olympic Qualifier on May 13 to 22 in Sofia, Bulgaria and the Aiba Women’s World Boxing Championship (May 19-27) in Astana, Kazakhstan—offer a gateway to the Olympics.

Morocco has nine qualifiers, three of them women, Russia and host Brazil have eight each while the United States has six boxers assured of seats.

Six Filipino boxers, led by Asian Games silver medalist Charly Suarez (60kg) and SEA Games gold medalists Mario Fernandez (56kg) and welterweight Eumir Felix Marcial, have left for China yesterday.

Also competing in the meet are light flyweight Rogen Ladon, flyweight Roldan Boncales and Nesthy Petecio (women’s flyweight, 51kg).