Wrestler Jason Balabal eyes Europe, US training ahead of Asian Games

Jason Balabal celebrates during the medal ceremony. REUTERS/Cindy Liu

Wrestler Jason Balabal knows his options in terms of preparing for the coming 19th Asian Games (Asiad).

“We have two choices. It’s either we train here and compete among ourselves or we look for sparring partners outside of the country,’’ said Balabal in Filipino exactly a month after his golden feat in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games held in Cambodia.

While preparing at home for the Asiad—which Hangzhou, China, will host three months from now—comes cheaper, setting up a camp overseas promises bigger returns.

“If we stay here, there won’t be any progress compared to training overseas prior to the Asian Games,’’ said Balabal, who owns a collection of nine medals in the SEA Games since 2009 in Laos.

Balabal prefers to grapple with wrestlers from Russia or the United States.

“Knowing they could meet you in the Asian Games, these Asian countries won’t risk showing you the technique of their best wrestlers, so it’s better to train in Europe or the United States,’’ said Balabal.

In the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Russian wrestlers took four gold medals in the sport while the United States had three. Japanese grapplers triumphed on home soil with five gold medals.

The 37-year-old pride of Ifugao province rediscovered his lethal form after a 12-year wait in wrestling by bagging the -87-kilogram division title in men’s greco-roman during the recent SEA Games.