Velasco: Asian Games slots up for grabs

National boxing coach Roel Velasco assured members of the training pool that everyone would be given ample chances to prove their worth in line with the formation of the Asian Games-bound team.

“Every boxer will have the opportunity to get ready for the box-offs,” Velasco said from the national team’s training headquarters at Teacher’s Camp in Baguio City.

The 20th edition of the Asian Games are scheduled 19 September to 4 October in Aichi-Nagoya in Japan.

“There’ll be training camps overseas as well as tournaments for everyone intending to make the Asian Games team,” Velasco, the 1992 Barcelona Olympics bronze medalist, said.

The vast majority of the Asian Games candidates have been training in the City of Pines the last four weeks under the watchful eyes of Velasco, Ronald Chavez and overall head coach Pat Gaspi. Australian Don Abnett, who has been with the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines long enough to know Filipino boxers, serves as the training director.

The box-offs are likely going to take place in July, according to Velasco, who is one of Philippine amateur boxing’s legendary punchers.

There will be plenty of tournaments where members of the national team are going to use as venue to showcase their wares.

Training camps in Thailand, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan as well as tournaments in Brazil, Mongolia and Japan, are in the pipeline.

Top bets to snare Asian Games berths are professionals Eumir Marcial and Weljon Mindoro as well as Tokyo silver medalist Carlo Paalam.

Up-and-coming talents Jay Byran Baricuatro and Ashley Mark Fajardo are likewise expected to figure well in the box-offs.

In the last Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, the Philippines could only bring home a lone silver medal, courtesy of Marcial.