Mark Sangiao weighs in on PHL’s chances of kickboxing gold at SEA Games

Mark Sangiao is cautiously optimistic about the Philippines' chances of bagging gold medals in kickboxing at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.

The Team Lakay head coach, who is renowned for his mastery of wushu and mixed martial arts, was tapped to train the Philippine National Kickboxing Team a couple of months ago.

He has a total of eight fighters who are set to compete, with three of them from Team Lakay in Gina Iniong, Jerry Olsim, and Jean Claude Saclag.

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"I've separated their training from MMA. It wasn't difficult to do since my first art is boxing even before I got into wushu," said Sangiao.

"I've created a program for the team. What we need to do now is find out the level of competition in the SEA Games. This is the first time that we're going to compete here so it's hard to gauge where we're at."

Sangiao said that he only got the names of their opponents recently, so he is squeezing all the time he can give to review their styles.

"We don't know for sure how good they are so we're doing our research. So far what we know is Vietnam is quite good while this one is pretty much basic for Thailand," he added.

As for the odds of winning a medal, Sangiao dropped one name in particular who stands out the most from his talented pool of kickboxers.

"I see potential gold medalists, but I just can't predict how many. We have to consider that our athletes like Jean Claude Saclag came from wushu where he is a world champion," he said.

"Saclag has a huge chance of bagging gold. I also see others capable of winning but it is just hard to predict."

And while Sangiao refused to guarantee the number of gold medals his team can win for the Philippines, he vowed that his athletes will be out to give their all, especially since the biennial sports meet will be held on home soil.

"The nation can expect that our athletes will compete with all their heart," promised Sangiao.

"We carry the entire country on our shoulders so we've been working hard since day one of our training." — BM, GMA News