BACOLOD ? Cuban coach Enrique Steyners is confident a Filipino boxer will win an Olympic gold medal in London.
?Of course, it won?t be easy,? said the 56-year-old Steyners who was contracted with another Cuban coach Dagoberto Rojas to train Filipino simonpures last year. ?It will take a lot of hard, hard work. It will also take the support of everyone who can help. This involves teamwork. We should work like a family and I?m grateful that Mr. (Manny) Pangilinan, Mr. (Ricky) Vargas, Mr. (Patrick) Gregorio, Mr. (Manny) Lopez and his father (Mel) are all working together.?
The native of Mexiquito in Santiago, Cuba, was here to evaluate the fighters at the National Open.
Steyners, who was in Harry Ta?amor?s corner at the Beijing Olympics, said training potential medalists involves knowing what, where and how to throw a scoring punch.
?I couldn?t believe what happened to Harry in Beijing,? said Steyners who has trained three Cuban world champions (Lara, Comas and Perez) and took Spain?s Faustino Reyes Lopez to the 57-kilogram silver medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. ?Maybe, there was too much pressure because he was the only Filipino qualifier. He was relaxed in the World Cup and he won. But I also think the Philippines must re-establish strong relations with AIBA.?
Ta?amor, 30, was eliminated in his first fight in Beijing. He made it to the second phase four years ago in Athens.
Steyners said the pool of junior fighters today is a sign of good things to come. ?Harry can still fight in London but he?ll be 34 by then,? continued the former boxer who has coached 36 years with stints in Spain and Qatar. ?If he wants to, he will have to prove he deserves to go. But there are many others in the pool ready to fight like Palicte, Tacuyan, Loberanis, Nietes, Melligen, Ta?amor, Suarez and Saludar and veterans like Tipon and Basadre.?
Steyners said what he admires about Filipino fighters is their big heart. ?They may be smaller than other fighters in height but they fight with a lot of heart,? he said. ?They?re also very macho and dedicated. So many things have changed in international boxing in the last 20 years. Now, we have to learn not only how to box but how to beat the computer scoring system.?
Steyners started boxing when he was 10. For five years, he competed in barrio and provincial tournaments. Steyners never excelled as a fighter but found his calling as a coach.
?Luckily, I?ve produced several Cuban national and Pan-American champions,? he said. ?I spent three years as coach of the Spanish national team and one of my fighters was Rafael Lozano who fought in three Olympics. I?ve enjoyed my stay in the Philippines. I now speak a little Tagalog and my English is improving. But I notice the Filipino boxers are speaking more Spanish.?
Steyners? focus is training the country?s elite fighters while the other Cuban coach Dagoberto Rojas looks at grassroots development with a sharp eye on the youth.
* * * *
There were three 32-year-old gold medalists at the National Open but women?s lightwelterweight champion Michel Martinez of Bacolod City was the most senior of them all.
Martinez, who won a gold as a lightweight at the first Asian Championships in 2001, was born April 22, 1976. The other National Open winners were welterweight Larry Semillano (born Oct. 7, 1976) and middleweight Junie Tizon (born Aug. 11, 1976).
The oldest finalist was flyweight Ernane Disabille, 33. who surrendered to Rey Saludar, 19, at the end of the first round in the flyweight finals. Another finalist, lightheavyweight Reynaldo Galido, was 32. Galido, a gold medalist at the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games and a 1996 Atlanta Olympian, suffered a nasty cut over the left eye and lost to Jose Antioso via an injury stoppage at 1:01 of the third round in the 75 kilogram finals.
Tizon?s title bout against Delfin Boholst ended in an 11-11 tie. But a countback of the five judges? scorecards found Tizon on top, 55-48. A four-time Southeast Asian Games campaigner, Tizon fights for the Philippine Navy.
Semillano?s win was considered an upset. He got the jump early on Wilfredo Lopez, 22, and held on for a 12-9 win. Semillano was a silver medalist at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games and wore the national colors at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Carving out impressive wins in other finals matches were Southeast Asian Games gold medalists Joan Tipon and Genebert Basadre. The long-armed Tipon, 26, beat Jherjigs Chavez, 10-3, for the featherweight crown while Basadre, whose father Gilbert coaches the Misamis Oriental squad with former Asian Games gold medalist Bobby Jalnaiz, trounced Australia?s Bashir Sadiq, 14-3, for the lightwelterweight title.
Sadiq, 18, is an Afghan who fights for the Blacktown Hit Squad with featherweight youth discovery Robin Palileo and is coached by Sydney-based Filipino Ric Fortaleza.
There were 47 gold, 47 silver and 74 bronze medals awarded at the National Open in five age categories ? elite (for men and women, 19-34), youth (for boys and girls, 17-18), juniors (for boys and girls, 15-16), schoolboys (13-14) and kids (boys 11-12). Elite fights were conducted under the new AIBA format of three rounds of three minutes each.
