Eumir Marcial in the Asia/Oceania boxing Olympic qualifiers. ABAP PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Eumir Marcial is headed to Denver, Colorado to finish his preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines announced Friday.
The middleweight bet was supposed to fly to Thailand to join the rest of the national boxing team after the ASBC Asian Elite Men and Women’s Boxing Championships in Dubai but that plan was halted due to visa issues.
Thailand now requires visas from all foreign visitors, including Filipinos, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
ABAP Secretary General Ed Picson said that ABAP President Ricky Vargas instructed him to get in contact with USA Boxing to see if Marcial can join the international training camp in Denver.
The training camp will be in Colorado Springs with six of the American Olympic qualifiers training with other national boxers from other countries.
“On instructions of ABAP president Ricky Vargas, I contacted my counterparts in USA Boxing (the American boxing federation) and they graciously granted our request for Eumir and one ABAP coach to join the camp,” said Picson.
ABAP, Picson said, tried to get Marcial’s Thai visa through the help of the Thai Boxing Association but the documents weren’t secured on time due to several factors.
“Unfortunately, Eumir was unable to pick up his Visa while he was in LA. And when he was in Zamboanga and decided to go to Thailand, his passport arrived late in Manila and the Thai Embassy could no longer entertain his application,” said Picson.
ABAP is also trying to send Nesthy Petecio, Irish Magno, and Carlo Paalam to Denver and the national team coaches to the Denver camp but that will depend if USA Boxing agrees.