Four Misor boxers to national training pool

FOUR of Misamis Oriental’s seven gold medal winners during the recently concluded 2012 PLDT-ABAP National Amateur Boxing Championship have been selected to the National Amateur Boxing Training Pool.

Eduardo A. Ayunting, deputy regional director of the of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) for Region X said he recently received a letter from Edgar E. Picson, ABAP executive director who identified the four Misor boxers as 18 year-old Rey March Casas (Boys Light Flyweight), Julito Sumalinog, 16 (Jr. Boy’s Flyweight/light bantamweight?), Jeanvee Flores, 18 (Girl’s Bantamweight) and Margie Waga, 17 (Girl’s Flyweight).

Mr. Ayunting said the province is now securing the parents’ permission to allow their children to report to the ABAP Training Center at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, Manila so they can start practicing with the National Pool and hopefully make it someday as a National Boxer.

According to the letter from Mr. Picson, the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and the ABAP will handle all the Misor boxers travel expenses to Manila, daily stipend and education should their parents permit them to join the National Pool.

The province’s long running amateur boxing program emerged as the best team with seven gold medals at the recently concluded 2012 PLDT-ABAP National Amateur Boxing Championship held in Tagbilaran City. With five silvers and eight bronzes, the Misor team also had the most number of medals.

Light flyweight Juniel Lacar emerged as the Best Boxer in his division. Other gold medal winners included Julito Sumalinog (light bantamweight), Princess Galarfe (Girl’s flyweight), Rey March Casas (Boys Light Flyweight), Beverly Casero (Girls Pinweight), Margie Waga (Girl’s Flyweight) and Jeanvee Flores (Girl’s Bantamweight).

However, the biggest accolade for the present crop of amateur Misor boxers so far in the sport known as the ‘sweet science’ has been accorded to 14-year old Roberto Miguel Jalnaiz, who was selected by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) to represent the Philippines to the London Summer School Sports Program at St. Bede’s School in London on July 29 to August 12, 2012 for his outstanding performance at the Batang Pinoy Games.

The program is a project of the PSC and The British Council to provide young athletes with foreign exposure while building character and strengthening their self-confidence. Participants get to watch the London Olympics and meet with other athletes from other nations.

This all-expenses paid program, which was started last year to promote the London Olympics locally, aims to expose the 14 and 15-year-old athletes, some of whom have not gone overseas, to living in a foreign country and interacting with kids from other nationalities.

Jalnaiz and the medal winners in Tagbilaran are undergoing training at the MisOr-PLDT-ABAP Regional Amateur Boxing Training Center, a joint project of the Provincial Government of Misamis Oriental, the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) and PLDT headed by head coach and trainer, 1990 Asian Games Bantamweight Gold Medalist and two-time Olympian Roberto Jalnaiz.