Submission grappling in next SEA Games?

Wrestling Association of the Philippines (WAP) president and Universal Reality Combat Championship founder Alvin Aguilar is confident of delivering at least 10 gold medals if submission grappling is added to the calendar of the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games which the country will host on Nov. 30-Dec. 9 next year.

The existing gold medals at stake in wrestling at the SEA Games level are for 21 events – seven weight divisions (55, 60, 66, 74, 84, 96, 120 kilograms) in men’s Greco-Roman and freestyle each and seven weight divisions (44, 48, 51, 55, 59, 63, 67 kilograms) in women’s freestyle.

Wrestling was struck out of the SEA Games in 2015 and 2017 but will make a comeback next year. The sport was removed from the Olympics in 2016 but will be restored for the 2020 Tokyo Games. At the 2013 SEA Games in Myanmar, the Philippines bagged two silvers and four bronzes in wrestling with no gold. The silver medalists were Jason Balabad (84 kilograms) and Margarito Angana (55 kilograms) in GrecoRoman while the bronze medalists were Balabad (84), Joseph Angana (66), Jhonny Morte (60) and Alvin Lobrequito (55) in freestyle.

“If we are allowed, we will add submission grappling to the SEA Games and if that happens, we can produce more than 10 golds,” said Aguilar. “We have 21 gold medals at stake in the coming SEA Games but only 27 players in the national pool compared to others with 40 to 60. In the last two SEA Games, there wasn’t any wrestling. If submission grappling is included, we’ll walk away with all the golds as we are the top in this event in Asia. My main problem is the PSC doesn’t support the youth as unlike other countries around Asia with world champions who are nine years old. But I’m hoping to change that by raising our own funds. Mostly, we are abonado. I will be launching wrestling in schools and on TV starting this year.”

Submission grappling is an event recognized by the United World Wrestling (UWW), the international governing body for the sport that is based in Switzerland with 176 member nations. Freestyle and Greco-Roman are in the Olympics but other events supervised by the UWW are grappling, beach wrestling, belt wrestling, pankration and pahlavani wrestling. At the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Turkmenistan last September, Jefferson Manalad took the bronze in the 80-kilogram class of belt wrestling.

Aguilar said he has established wrestling clubs all over the country with Dumaguete and Saranggani the latest to join the fold. “We have a program where we train kids from the streets for free and a lot became champions in different sports and now, there are two on the Philippine team who are among our Olympic hopefuls,” he said. The two wrestling upstarts are both 15, Joeffer Calliado and Rogielyn Prado. The plan is to send them to Iran and Mongolia this year for training and experience. Aguilar said they’ve been wrestling since they were kids.

In the Asian Games this year, Aguilar said Lobrequito, Morte, Balabad and Roniel Tubog will lead the country’s charge in wrestling. At the 2014 Southeast Asian and Australasian Wrestling Championships in Singapore, Morte took the freestyle gold in the 61-kilogram division and was named best scientific wrestler in the sevennation competition. Lobrequito also won the gold in the 57-kilogram class in the joust.

Aguilar said three San Francisco-based, teenaged Fil-Am wrestlers were recently added to the national pool of candidates for the SEA Games next year. They are Kai Guingona, 18, Luke Cruz, 19 and Shelly Avelino, 18. The three wrestlers participated in trials conducted by the Philippines’ Iranian coach Saeid Abbaszadeh. Their goal is to represent the country in the SEA Games and ultimately, the Olympics.