It will be a busy first quarter of the year for the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (Abap) as it stages two major local tournaments, leading off to the Asian Youth Championships in March.
The Capitol Grounds in Iba, Zambales, through the provincial government headed by Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., will be the site of the PLDT-Abap National Capital Region-Luzon Area tournament on Jan. 22-26.
About 80 boxers coming from 15 clubs and associations will vie for slots to the PLDT-Abap National Championships on Feb. 17 to 23.
The Nationals will be held in Maasin, Southern Leyte, where the qualifiers from the Zambales tourney will lock horns with their counterparts from other tilts held last year in Bago City (Visayas) and GenSan (Mindanao).
“We are picking up from where we left off,” said Abap president Ricky Vargas. “This is our way of starting the year with a bang. We’re seeing to it that our program is active and robust, leading up to the the Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar this November.”
The Asian Youth is set March 10-17 at Subic Bay Freeport Zone gym with entries from 20 to 25 countries flying in.