Saturday, August 04, 2007 Tipon hopes to win in Olympic qualifier By Henry C. Villalva
BACOLOD City native Joan Tipon who came home last December with a bantamweight division men's boxing gold medal from the 15th Asian Games in Doha, Qatar has his sights set on being able to campaign in one of three scheduled Olympic qualifying tournaments and secure a ticket for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
"Of course my target is to win the country's first-ever Olympic gold medal, God willing," Tipon said.
He said there will be three qualifying competitions for the coming Olympiad-the first is the World Boxing Championship scheduled in Chicago, USA on October 18 -
November 3, while Asia will hold two Olympic qualifiers to fill vacancies for the region, if need be, after the Chicago tournament. The first is slated in Bangkok in January next year and the other in Kazakhstan in April next year also.
"I hope and pray that I will be able to compete in the first qualifier and make it to the top eight since the top eight in every category will advance to Beijing," Tipon said.
Asia is allotted eight slots in each weight division where there are sixty four entries, the maximum for each category and Tipon said it is the general belief that it's possible for Asians to dominate the lighter weights and the heavier division usually take less than 64 entries.
Asked to react to reports that he, fellow Asiad gold medalist Violito Payla (flyweight) and Genebert Basadre (lightweight) are considered as the top medal hopes for boxing in the Beijing Olympics, the soft-spoken Negrense said, "I don't want to put pressure on myself and as much as possible I don't entertain much of what is being written about me. My motto is just to train hard and allow God to do the rest. It has always worked well for me," Tipon reiterated.
Meanwhile, Tipon also confirmed that getting Cuban coach Raul Fernandez Liranza's services for the RP team appears to be dim because they (the RP boxers) were told it seems that the Cuban government won't allow Liranza to return to the Philippines.
Liranza guided Bago City native Mansueto Velasco to a silver medal in the 1996 Olympics.
