| Filipino
Boxers
Australia
nets top Filipino
amateur boxing coach
By
JAIME K PIMENTEL
One
of the most accomplished coaches in the world of amateur
boxing, the Philippines’ former Olympic Games mentor Ricardo
Fortaleza, has been recruited by a Blacktown youth club.
Fortaleza,
50, arrived as a migrant from the Philippines last July and
settled in the Blacktown suburb of St Martin’s Village.
The
talented Filipino was promptly recommended by Australia’s
boxing supremo Arthur Tunstall and recruited by award-winning
coach Wayne Hunt, of Quakers Hill, to bolster Blacktown Policy
Community Youth Club’s boxing training pool.
Next
to basketball legend Carlos ‘Caloy’ Loyzaga, surely
boxing’s Fortaleza would rank as Australia’s most prized
sports acquisitions from the Philippines today.
As
a boxer in the 1960s, Fortaleza won gold at the first Asian
youth championships in Japan in 1969, and was Philippine
National Games champion in 1969-1974 and Manila Golden Gloves
champion in 1965-1967.
He
fought as the Philippines’ featherweight at the 1972 Olympic
Games in Munich.
As
a coach, Fortaleza led the Philippine team at the Olympic
Games in Barcelona, the President’s Cup in Jakarta, the
King’s Cup in Bangkok, the South East Asian Games in
Singapore, the World Boxing championships in Belgrade, the
Asian Games in Bangkok, the Inter-Cup tournament in
Chrieshseim (Germany), the Acropolis Cup in Athens, and
several other international tournaments.
Fortaleza
also coached the Oman boxing team in 1986-1990 and led the
team to the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.
In
Taipei, he was boxing coach at Taipei College of Physical
Education.
After
finishing high school at Araullo High School, Fortaleza earned
a bachelor of science in education degree with a major in
physical education and took up electrical engineering at Far
Eastern University in Manila.
He
attended more than 10 seminars and conferences on amateur
boxing in different parts of the world and worked as staff and
consultant in several Philippine government organisations.
Fortaleza
received special awards including the Philippines’ amateur
boxer of the year in 1970, 1971, 1972, and Araullo High
School’s most outstanding alumnus in sports in 1993.
“I
would like to believe that I can contribute something to my
new home of Australia,” Fortaleza said.
“I
have quickly discovered the remarkable boxing talent at
Blacktown PCYC, and I would like to put this talent to good
use.
“The
kids are keen, fast learners and, most importantly, very fit
for the sport of amateur boxing.”
In
partnership with Hunt, who has trained amateur boxers in the
Blacktown area since 1976, Fortaleza could help develop in
Blacktown our olympians for the 2004 in Athens.
“That’s
not impossible,” he said confidently.
March 13, 2001
 Jaime K. Pimentel is
a Sydney-based journalist and sub-editor with Fairfax Ltd. He has a bachelor's degree in
Journalism from Ateneo and a master's degree in Advertising and Newspaper Management from
Northwestern University (Chicago). He was previously a lecturer in Journalism at San Beda
and UST. Jimmy is also a scriptwriter and producer of Dramatic Philippines.
He loves and practices the sports he writes about. He was a boxing gold medallist during
his Ateneo days, an official of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines as a
referee and judge, and an Ateneo instructor in P.E. (boxing and swimming). In Australia,
he was also an amateur boxing referee. emanila team |
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