3 Filipinos among Asia’s best in boxing

Three Filipinos won in the 2016 Asia’s Best in Boxing Awards, Asian Boxing Confederation President Serik Konakbayev of Kazakhstan announced on Wednesday.

Abap’s 2014 discovery Criztian Pitt Laurente, 16, of General Santos City, was cited as Best Junior Boxer in Asia for 2016 for his spectacular Gold Medal win in the Children of Asia Tournament held in Yakutsk, Russia last July. Laurente won the only gold medal for the Philippines in that competition, where Filipinos competed in nine different sports.

Laurente comes from a family of boxers. His father Cristino is one of General Santos’ foremost boxing coaches, elder brother Criz Sander is also a national team member, mother Rosalinda is an ABAP National Referee-Judge.

Long-time Abap head coach Patricio Gaspi was acknowledged as the Best Asian Coach. Gaspi, a former national boxer, is the Chairman of the ASBC Coaches Commission and is a certified AIBA 3-Star Coach (the highest level) and is also a certified AIBA Coaching Instructor. He is also a member of the AIBA Coaches Commission.

Maria Karina Picson, who passed the ITO (International Technical Official) Course and Examinations in Antalya, Turkey in 2011 and the AIBA Supervisor’s Course and Examinations in 2015 in Almaty Kazakhstan, was recognized as the 2016 Best Supervisor in Asia.

She is certified for all three AIBA programs- AOB (AIBA Open Boxing, the Olympic program) WSB (World Series of Boxing, a team tournament fought in 5 rounds) and the APB (AIBA Pro Boxing, fought over 12 rounds). Picson is also a member of both the AIBA and ASBC Women’s Commissions.

Abap President Ricky Vargas sent a congratulatory message to the three awardees calling them “Asia’s Best, Philippines’ Pride.”

Vargas encouraged them to continue to strive for excellence in their respective roles and to inspire everyone in ABAP to do the same.

There were 14 awardees in all including Danita Yeleussinov of Kazakhstan as Best Male Elite Boxer, China’ Yu Jin Hua (Best Woman Elite Boxer), Hayato Tsushima of Japan (Best Youth Boxer), Asian Discovery of the Year Shakhram Giyasov of Uzbekistan, Kuok Veng Vong of Macau as Best Asian ITO and Kazakhstan as Best Asian National Federation for 2016.