Lance Corporal (LCpl) John Nobel Marvin was presented with a special award at the Philippines National Sports Awards last month for winning Gold at the South East Asian Games in 2017.
24-year-old John hails from Ventnor but holds dual English and Philippines nationality, which was the component that allowed him to successfully represent his mother’s home country last year.
He said:
“Winning the award was a complete surprise, it was an honour to have been invited to the event but to then go up and receive the award for my performance alongside Eumir Felix Marcial, another Filipino boxer in the Welterweight division, was truly amazing.”
The infantry soldier who serves with 1st Battalion The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment has recently been training in the Philippines and Thailand, continuing his dream of representing the Philippines, this time in preparation for the Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia which takes place this summer.
Whilst LCpl Marvin has been away in the Far East for 2 months his training conditions and way of life have certainly been a lot different to that back in the UK. The camp itself is situated in the mountain resort of Baguio City and is approximately 5,055ft above sea level. Most of his days began religiously at 05:00, with weigh in at 05:30 and then on the training track for 06:00.
LCpl Marvin said:
“The heat and culture is just so different so training has to be tailored to take these into account.”
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Naturally the food isn’t anything like that in the UK either, the training diet is completely different, predominately rice and fish heads or rice and Pak Choi but John added:
“I embraced it, the training is tough but good, they push you to the absolute edge and you just have to keep going. I made the most of the time I had available.”
Having now recently returned to the UK, John is back training hard with the Army Boxing team ahead of the inter-services boxing competition, where he will box in a team with the rest of the selected few against the RAF and the Navy.
In the coming months John will continue to train and is looking forward to competing in the Amateur Boxing Association National Championships and travelling back out to the Philippines in preparation for the 18th Asian Games in August in Jakarta Indonesia. John has also been nominated for the finals of the Isle of Wight Sportsman of the Year at the annual IoW Sports Dinner.
