SINGAPORE ? With the improvement of European boxers in the last Olympics, the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines, which will be under new president Manny V. Pangilinan and chairman Ricky Vargas by the end of the year, is now looking at European coaches instead of Cubans to run a program geared at winning the elusive gold medal in the 2012 London Games.
?Pinagiisipan namin (we?re thinking) if Cuban coaching is up to date,? said Pangilinan citing the improvement of European boxers and the decline of the Cuban pugs in the last Olympics held in Beijing.
The Cubans lost their stranglehold of boxing in the 2008 Olympics, failing to win a single gold and settling for four silvers and four bronzes. Russia and China won two gold medals each.
?It seems the trend now is Russian coaching and we?re looking at it. Definitely, a foreign coach will be there,? said Pangilinan of the program they?re planning to lay down for the London Olympics campaign.
The telecommunication mogul said they would chart their course of action in a planning session early next year.
?We?ll thresh out the problems then lay down the programs as we did at SBP,? said Pangilinan, also the national basketball federation president who?s here, for one, to talk with SEABA president Eric Thohir for the possible staging of the 2009 SEABA championship in Manila.
Pangilinan said they?re likely to hold the ABAP planning session in Bacolod, to coincide with the holding of a national championship to be hosted by Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella.
Off hand, Pangilnan said plans are afoot for the establishment of regional training centers in Visayas and Mindanao and one in Luzon outside Metro Manila.
?We?ve visited Cebu and seen the excellent training center of Tony Aldeguer. We?ve talked to him and he?s willing to help. But we need to have separate centers in Mindanao, probably in Cagayan de Oro or Gen. Santos City, and one in Luzon outside Manila, probably Baguio,? said Pangilinan.
?I can?t see problem raising the money because of its popularity, thanks to Manny Pacquiao ? I have friends willing to help,? Pangilinan added.
Philippine boxing has been in a decline, too, with only one boxer in Harry Ta?amor qualifying for the Beijing Games. Ta?amor was out right after the first bout.
The Beijing debacle only intensified the call for a leadership change at ABAP, paving the way for the entry of Pangilinan and Vargas and the exit of Manny Lopez.
