Thais suspension ups Phl pugs' bid

MANILA, Philippines - AIBA, the world governing body for amateur boxing, has suspended Thailand indefinitely, making the Southeast Asian power and the Philippines’ chief rival a doubtful participant in the sport in this year’s SEA Games in Jakarta.

Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines secretary-general Patrick Gregorio and executive director Ed Picson welcomed the development but said their focus is to prepare and train the national boxers hard for the biennial meet, with or without the AIBA suspension on Thailand.

“With or without Thailand in the SEA Games, our Filipino PLDT-backed boxers are ready to compete because our main goal is to surpass our five-gold haul in the 2009 Laos Games,” said Gregorio.

“We were actually looking forward to facing the Thais but obviously, there’s nothing we can do because the AIBA has decided,” Picson.

The AIBA sacked Thailand for the latter’s failure to call fresh elections by the end of June.

AIBA earlier demanded Thailand’s boxing association to hold fresh polls after it annulled the results of March’s election when Gen. Narin Tabprasit was elected president unopposed as successor of Gen. Taweep Jantarok.

Angered by the dubious conduct of the election, AIBA suspended Thailand and banned Taweep from all AIBA-sanctioned boxing events for two years. The boxing body also slapped a one-year ban on Narin.

AIBA has called for Thai boxing stakeholders to form a new unified group to regain its official status as regular member of the world boxing association similar to what happened to the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas in basketball when it took over following the country’s suspension.

The suspension also prevented Thailand from competing in last week’s President’s Cup in Indonesia where the Philippines won two golds and two silvers.

The sanction could also keep Thailand out of the World Championships in Azerbaijan this September as well as the qualifier for the 2012 London Olympics.

Joey Villar, Philippine Star