Eight Muay Thai players five of them from Baguio and the Cordilleras, two of them medalists in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games will fly tomorrow for Bangkok, Thailand for the 2021 International Federation of Muay Thai Associations World Championship.
Leeariel Lampacan and Islay Erika Bomogao will be among the fighters in the world championship that will be staged from December 6 to 12 in Thailand’s most popular tourist destination, Phuket.
Lampacan, who won a gold in the 2019 SEAG, will see action 54 kilogram male, while Bomogao, a silver medalist in the last SEAG, sees action in the 45 kgs. Female.
They will be joined by Carissa Tarapen (51 kgs female), AJ La Madrid (60 kgs female) and Aldrich Toralba (48 kgs male) in the event that will have an upper youth, under 23 years old and senior division.
Tarapen is a criminology graduate from the Cordillera Career Development College who was supposed to take the board examination this month but postponed it due to the world championship, said Bomogao.
Toralba is an alternative learning system student while La Madrid is from the Baguio Central University.
Philip Delarmino will actually banner the Philippine muaythai team as he sees action in the 57 kgs male side.
Delarmino is fresh from winning the Asian featherweight crown of the World Muay Thai Council by beating hometown bet Zakaria Eljamari last June in Dubai.
The 2019 SEAG gold medal winner will try to better his last year’s performance in the same event where he came short of winning a medal after falling in the quarterfinals.
Other fighters in the Philippine delegation are Rudzma Abubakar (48 kgs women) and Ryan May Jakiri in the 63.5 kgs male.
They will be joined by coaches Precious Ocaya-Delarmino and Cordillerans Edzel Ngina and Billy Alumno.
The Philippine muaythai team has been billeted at the Benguet State University since May this year for their bubble training in preparation for the SEAG in Hanoi, Vietnam that was postponed for May next year due to the Covid-19 surge last July.
But the players remained in preparation for the 2021 world championship, said Bomogao.
“Since May , naka bubble training kami here sa BSU for the SEAGames. Then it was postponed to next year but we did not stop our bubble training kase thankfully, merong world championships this December,” said Bomogao.
Bomogao, who said that they will fly to Bangkok December 4 added that “after the world championships, maybe we’ll have a 3-4 week break. Then back to bubble training for the SEAGames, world games and Asian indoor martial arts games.
Absent in the team is Jenelyn Olsim.
