Mark Anthony Barriga put up a valiant fight but he ended up short in his quest to end a 16-year medal drought for the Philippines in the ongoing London Olympics by bowing to Kazakhstan?s Birzhan Zhakypov in a close and heartbreaking loss, 17-16.
With Barriga out, the Philippine medal campaign in London is virtually lost with the three remaining Filipino athletes not even given a chance to advance any further in their events in athletics and BMX competition.
Barriga was the lone Filipino boxer to qualify in this year?s Olympics ? the second consecutive Games that the Filipino sent a lone entry.
History ? well at least the post-World War II of the Olympic Games ? has told us that in a sport event measured by time, distance and height, the Filipinos will always be handicapped. The last time Filipinos won in such an event was in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics when Simeon Toribio won bronze in the men?s high jump and when Teofilo Ydelfonso repeated his 1928 feat by again winning the bronze medal in the men?s 200-m breaststroke.
In fact, the last four medals (2 silvers, 2 bronzes) won by the Philippines came from boxing, an individual sports that is classified through weight classes and where individual skills are the norm of the game. The Philippines has never won a medal in any team event in the Olympics.
The Philippine used to lord over in boxing in Asia and once ruled the Far East Games (precursor of the Asian Games).
Today, the Philippines cannot even top the medal count in the Southeast Asian Games.
Boxing badly needs a facelift if the country hopes to again barge into the medal board and finally win the country?s first gold medal.
It needs more than just PLDT?s Manny Pangilinan lending his resources to the development of the sports.
Sports officials heading the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) need to think beyond what they are doing right now and out of the box. With Barriga?s exit, ABAP needs to lay down a comprehensive program for amateur boxing. Not just setting its sights on the 2016 Rio Olympics but perhaps three or four Olympics from now. Several countries, especially the former Eastern Europe block, have made great strides in boxing. Not to mention the emergence of China as new amateur boxing power in the world. We cannot afford to approach the Olympics on a Games-to-Games basis. We need to plot our program and measure our success on how we are improving every qualifying tournament.
The Philippines cannot continue to just look for talents in the annual Palarong Pambansa where most of our boxing ?prospects? are recruited. The training pool should have at least 20 per weight class (there are 11 weight classes in amateur boxing) with regular local tournaments and continuous international exposure for our pool of boxers. Most of all, they should be recruited and trained young, perhaps when they are still 12 or 13 years old ? barely out of elementary school ? with emphasis on height. ABAP officials should see to it that our boxers should not be more than two inches shorter than the average height of opponents in their respective weight classes. If they can be taller, so be it. Skills will follow.
We have to keep up with the rest of the world. We cannot continue to send midgets and hope to win every time. Skills alone will not help us win the gold medal. We also need to have them well-fed, well educated, and well-inspired.
And perhaps, it is time to finally inject new faces into the ABAP leadership.
Many of those who are heading the regional chapters of ABAP have been there for more than 20 years. Time for them to give way to young, dynamic and bold leaders who will not be beholden to the exigency and expediency of politics.
