2 Cubans here to train RP boxers
This Cuban boxing coach, who looks more like a bodybuilder, can’t wait to get things done for the Philippine team.
A day after arriving in Manila, Juan Enrique Tissert yesterday asked his Filipino counterparts to immediately bring him and his tall and lanky partner Dagoberto Rojas Scott to Baguio City.
They got what they wanted, as they were seen loading their bags into a Starex van yesterday afternoon for the six-hour trip to Baguio where the core of the RP boxing team is training.
Tissert, 57, and Scott, 41, were brought in from Cuba by Philippine Sports Commission chairman Butch Ramirez and amateur boxing chief Manny Lopez to help the embattled Pinoy boxers.
They are following the footsteps of Raul Liranza, the Cuban boxing guru who steered Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco to the light-flyweight silver medal in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Liranza stayed on until the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and led the Lerio brothers, Danilo to the quarterfinals, and Arlan to the second round of the eliminations.
Filipino officials are hoping that Tissert and Scott could help Philippine boxing recover lost ground, starting with a Kazakhstan qualifying tournament for the Beijing Olympics.
“I’m sure they can help. And we are willing to learn,” said Pat Gaspi, head of the Filipino coaching staff.
The Kazakhstan event, which starts March 15 is the last qualifying tournament for the 2008 Olympics in August. And so far, only one RP boxer, light-flyweight Harry Tañamor, has qualified.
Tissert was asked what he plans to do with the Pinoy boxers with less than a month left before the tournament.
“A good coach does not make plans until he sees the boxers,” he said in Spanish, as interpreted by Enrique Beech, an 84-year-old Olympian still working as PSC consultant.
“It’s going to be step by step,” added Tissert who also said their length of stay in the Philippines will depend on the development of the boxers under the Cuban coaches.
And it starts in Kazakhstan then in Beijing, no matter how many Filipino boxers get there.
Tissert and Scott are getting $3,000 a month combined as compared to the $2,500 a month Liranza got in his long, decent stay in the Philippines.
“Based on our evaluation, these two are the best coaches who can help our national boxers in their training and preparation for various international competitions,” said Lopez.
The duo has a combined output of two silver medals in the Olympics and two golds and four bronzes in the World Championships plus a slew of medals in various international competitions.
Tissert is a former coach of Cuba’s national boxing team and member of the National Technical Commission, which draws the training plans for the national squad.
A Santiago native, Tissert was with Cuba’s Provincial Boxing Academy from 1972 to 1989 until he was contracted to help the Spanish boxing team in 1992 for two years.
Tissert worked as a trainer for the Olympics, the World Championships, Mediterranean Games, European Junior and Seniors Championships, Central American Championships and Arabian Senior Championships.
Source:philstar.com
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