A three-man boxing squad led by 2016 Rio Olympics veteran Rogen Ladon is in Colorado Springs for high-altitude training and competition.
Ladon is joined there by Aira Villegas and Hergie Bacyadan and Australian coach Don Abnett, according to Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines secretary general Marcus Manalo.
“There is a multi-nation camp — expecting around 10 countries — from 23 August until 7 September,” Manalo told Daily Tribune.
After the training camp, boxers from the participating nations are competing in a tournament from 7 to 16 September in Pueblo, also in Colorado, probably with fighters from other countries taking part,” Manalo said.
Colorado Springs, site of USA Boxing’s headquarters, has an elevation of 6,000 feet, while Pueblo is 4,600 feet above sea level.
Manalo said only Ladon, Villegas and Bacyadan were sent there owing to budget constraints.
Ladon won his second Southeast Asian Games gold medal in Hanoi last May while Bacyadan was also supposed to compete in the Southeast Asian Games but her weight class — 75 kg — was scrapped at the last minute.
Villegas didn’t go to Vietnam but she went as far as the light-fly quarterfinals in the world’s worlds also a few months ago.
This US stint is part of the national team’s buildup for next year’s SEA Games in Phnom Penh in May and the Hangzhou Asian Games in September.