Indonesia aims for one boxing gold amid punchy Thai onslaught<\/p>\n
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (JP): With Thai boxers securing berths in
\nall but one of Saturday's 11 final bouts at the 20th Southeast
\nAsian Games here, Indonesia has set a realistic target to win a
\nsingle gold medal, far below the six it won on home soil in 1997.<\/p>\n
Indonesia has booked four final spots through light flyweight
\nMuhammad Rusli, bantamweight Antonius Johni, light middleweight
\nJoko Suryono and light heavyweight Albert Papilaya. But coach
\nFerry Moniaga said on Friday that Albert was the only strong gold
\nmedal hopeful.<\/p>\n
\"He's the only Indonesian ace boxer left. At his peak form, he
\nis very difficult to beat,\" Ferry said of Albert, who won the
\nmiddleweight gold medal two years ago.<\/p>\n
Other Indonesian hopefuls Hermansen Ballo, La Paene Masara,
\nWillem Papilaya and Bara Gomies crashed out in earlier bouts.<\/p>\n
Albert, making his last international appearance, will face
\nSomsak Janthaporn of Thailand in the final. The fact that two of
\nthe other three Indonesian finalists will also take on Thai
\nopponents was another reason for Ferry's pessimistic forecast.<\/p>\n
Joko meets Nanakon Kongri, Antonius faces Ponlit Wijan and
\nRusli will challenge Juanito Magliquian of the Philippines, who
\nprevented the prospect of total Thai dominance with a win over
\nKantoa Songsak in Thursday's semifinal.<\/p>\n
Indonesia will be hard pressed to break the Thai dominance of
\namateur boxing.<\/p>\n
Albert said he was ready for the final bout. The 32-year-old
\nOlympics veteran stifled questions about his age by beating
\nyounger Filipino Ernesto Coronel inside the distance.<\/p>\n
\"I don't want to be careless in the final. Technically, we are
\nin the same league and I think we stand an equal chance,\" Albert
\nsaid of Somsak.<\/p>\n
Ferry blamed the defeat of the major boxers on the lack of
\nfinancial resources for overseas training stints.<\/p>\n
\"We even did not send them to an overseas tryout like we did
\nin the past,\" Ferry complained. The Indonesian Amateur Boxing
\nAssociation instead held a series of warm-up tournaments for the
\nSEA Games-bound.<\/p>\n
Prior to the Asian Games last year, the association hired
\nCuban coaches Isidiro Trotman and Julio Lee Hechavarria and sent
\nits boxers to a three-month overseas stint in Cuba. Indonesian
\nboxers took two silvers in the Asiad.<\/p>\n
Apart from four Indonesian boxers, four other Filipinos
\nsurvived to fight at the finals, as did two Malaysians and a
\nsingle fighter from Myanmar, welterweight Tun Tun Oo.<\/p>\n
The field had expected a \"wide open\" contest here, considered
\na neutral venue, after the home teams cleaned up in the medals
\nstakes at the SEA Games in Thailand in 1995 and Indonesia two
\nyears ago.<\/p>\n
But the Thais did nearly as well as in Chiang Mai four years
\nago, when 11 of their 12 fighters won golds to give their king a
\npresent for his 50th anniversary of coronation. (yan)<\/p>",
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