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MANILA – The International Olympic Committee (BTF) Boxing Task Force announced via virtual meeting Monday that an Olympic Qualifier for the Tokyo Games has been canceled.
The tournament was originally scheduled for May 2020 in Paris, but was postponed for this year due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
Two other incomplete qualifiers, the Americas and Europe, will advance, but had to be moved to May and June, respectively.
Due to the pandemic, the Tokyo Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (TOCOG) decided to restart the Games in July this year.
The BTF has taken over the role of organizing boxing competitions at the Olympic Games after the International Boxing Association (AIBA) was suspended by the Olympic body in 2019. The suspension remains in effect.
The general secretary of the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP), Ed Picson, who attended the meeting with more than 30 Asian countries, said that the forum was headed by the Head of the Working Group, Morinari Watanabe of Japan . Lenny Abbey, another IOC official and member of the Task Force, gave the hour-long presentation.
The Working Group also made similar presentations on the other three continents separately.
Picson said the Task Force explained that due to time constraints and safety concerns, it was decided to forego the World Qualifiers.
ABAP President Ricky Vargas said that “this could be beneficial to our cause as some of our boxers rank highly among those who have not yet qualified. I hope we get at least two more in Tokyo. “
Two Filipino boxers have qualified through the Asia / Oceania Qualifying Tournament held in Amman, Jordan, from January to February 2020. They are men’s middleweight Eumir Felix Marcial and women’s flyweight Irish Magno.
At the moment, several boxers are seriously training in “bubble conditions” at the INSPIRE Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna and are scheduled to leave for Thailand for a joint training camp later this month.
Among them are Magno, (Eumir Marcial is still in America), current world featherweight champion Nesthy Petecio, Carlo Paalam, Rogen Ladon, Ian Clark Bautista, Mario Fernandez, Aira Villegas and others.
The BTF is scheduled to make the official announcement of who will qualify for Tokyo (due to cancellation) in March. (PR)
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