BENGUET based kickboxers who will see action in the 30th Southeast Asian Games vowed to go all out amid minor problems being encountered by the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee.
Six of the eight kickboxers wrapped up their training Wednesday in La Trinidad, Benguet after a fruitful high altitude camp for more than a month before setting out for battle on December 7.
The six kickboxers who are currently based in Benguet include Renz Dacquel, Gina Iniong, Jerry Olsim, Jean Claude Saclag, Jomar Balangui and Karol Maguide with Team Lakay coach Mark Sangiao helping the squad as striking and fighting coach.
Dacquel, who will be competing in her first SEA Games said the team is confident they will be able to scoop gold medals in the different weight categories from kick light, full contact and low kick.
“Kinakabahan pero confident tayo na makukuha natin ang ginto,” said Dacquel during the sendoff at the Highland Boxing Gym.
Darwin Miller, Highland Boxing Gym team manager, sees the Philippine team having an advantage with the strength and determination by the kickboxers.
“Expect natin na maganda yung resulta and ang aim talaga ng mga players is, maka gold talaga sila,” added Miller.
Dacquel and Maguide are both boxers of Highland gym.
Sangiao is also confident that his players will do well in the competitions, saying: “I can’t predict now, we still do not know but we are confident that we will bring home golds.”
“The players are 95 percent prepared to go into action to the SEAG. It has been a two-month preparation, so we are already there,” added Sangiao.
This is the first time kickboxing is included on the list of events of the SEA Games.
ONE FC campaigners Gina Iniong will compete in the 55-kilogram division and Jerry Olsim is in 71 kg. division, while Jean Claude Saclag, will be competing in the 62 kg. category.
All are touted to win gold medals in the event.
Iniong and Saclag are former members of the Wushu Federation of the Philippines where Saclag is a former Asian Games silver medalist. He won a silver medal in the 2014 Asiad in Incheon, South Korea where he lost to China’s Hongxing Kong.
Iniong is a six-time wushu sanda national champion and now competes in the ONE FC atom weight division.
As of November 2019, she is number six pound-for-pound mixed martial artist in the Southeast Asia region.
Olsim is one of the newer Team Lakay members seeing action in ONE.
After six consecutive wins, Olsim bowed to Ryoji Kudo in the ONE Warrior Series last October 5.
Balangui, a native of Kalinga province like Saclag, is the 2018 FISU (International University Sports Federation) World Championship silver medalist in wushu sanda.
The kickboxers are backed by Samahang Kick Boxing ng Pilipinas (SKBP) president, Senator Francis Tolentino, and Secretary-General Wharton Wharton Chan.