WITH Harry Tañamor by his lonesome as he aims for the country’s first elusive gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, members of the Philippine boxing team are now looking ahead for the 2012 London Olympics, according to a Reuters report.

The 36-man RP national pool is now training in Baguio, preparing not for the coming Beijing Olympics but for the 2012 London Olympics.

Delfin Boholst, who was one of the boxers who failed to make it to the Beijing Olympics after an unsuccessful bid to qualify during the Kazakhstan qualifying event months ago, is one of them.

“After Kazakhstan, my morale sank to the very bottom of the sea,” Boholst told Reuters.

“I wanted to bury my head somewhere. But, fortunately, we did not have time to sulk and lick our wounds, we were immediately sent back to training as soon as we unpacked our bags,” added the 23-year-old boxer.

Tañamor will be the lone boxer in the Beijing Olympics in a sport that, historically, has given the country’s best chance in winning an Olympic medal, specifically, the gold medal, having won two silver and three bronze medals in Olympic history.

Rep. Monico Puentevella, chief of mission to the Olympics, also shared the same sentiment of preparing the boxers for the 2012 London Olympics and said the latest hiring of two Cuban coaches will be a great help for the future.

“The Cubans arrived too late to help our boxers win slots in Beijing but they may be just in time to prepare us for the 2012 Olympics in London,” said Puentevella to Reuters.

National coach Roel Velasco said that RP boxing has became stagnant and blamed economics for the poor showing this year.

“Look at China and India, they are now dominating the field. We used to make them our punching bags, now they humiliate us,” said Velasco to Reuters.

Velasco added that boxers only get at the maximum P8,000 a month or P350 a day.

“How would you expect our boxers to fight better? They could not always fight with their hearts, they need something in their stomachs, too,” he said.

Ronald Chavez, also a member of the national coaching staff, said that amateur boxing have lost prospects due to the flourishing professional business with the emergence of world boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao.

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Sports officials are betting the country’s gold-medal hopes on boxing and taekwondo. They’re also betting big money on them.

WITH Harry Tañamor by his lonesome as he aims for the country’s first elusive gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, members of the Philippine boxing team are now looking ahead for the 2012 London Olympics, according to a Reuters report.

If you’re a regular listener of Monster Radio RX 93.1, you surely would be familiar with Rico Robles—that sporty DJ who hosts All Access every 6 to 10 p.m., Mondays to Saturdays, and who makes all those interesting sports commentaries—about the National Basketball Association (NBA), among others.