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SEPTEMBER 8 , 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 35 | SEARCH ASIAWEEK
By ANTONIO LOPEZ Manila Boxing has traditionally been the Philippines' great Olympic strength. But this year it's a new sport, taekwondo, that is producing talk of gold. At the 1996 Games, where the martial art was a demonstration event, Filipinos won two bronzes. There are genuine hopes of doing at least as well in Sydney. "We have a good chance," says Robert Aventajado, president of the Philippine Taekwondo Association for the past 23 years. Aventajado says the Philippine hopefuls — Roberto "Kitoy" Cruz (56 kg), Donald David Geisler (70 kg), Eva Marie Ditan (49 kg), and Jasmin Strachan (55 kg) — are now in prime physical condition. "We pitted them against the Koreans and they proved their worth," he says. "They are no longer intimidated by the Koreans." Even so, the Philippine team is relieved that, with each country limited to four competitors, the Seoul selectors have chosen categories in which the Filipinos are not entered. Cruz, 28, is a five-time Southeast Asian Games champion. He won the Asian qualifying tournament for the Olympics in Manila in September last year, and was a bronze medallist in the World Cup in Germany in 1998. "I have always dreamed of becoming a world champion and an Olympian," he says. I will do my best to achieve my dreams." Geisler, 21, was gold medallist in the 1999 Southeast Asian Games and silver medallist in the 1998 World Cup. Ditan, 21, took the silver in the same tournament. As for the boxers, "the competition is tough but our boys will put up a good fight," assures Manny Lopez, president of the Philippine Amateur Boxing Association. "We have a much younger team compared to the one we sent to Atlanta. But what they lack in experience, they make up for in training." Write to Asiaweek at mail@web.asiaweek.com
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