Boxing body replaces Paene for Cuba stint
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Amateur Boxing Association has dropped flyweight La Paene Masara from a pre-Asian Games training stint in Cuba after missing regular workouts for a week without giving notice.
The association's chairman, Sang Nyoman Suwisma, said on Thursday less experienced Damianus Jordan had been named a last minute replacement for La Paene, who is a 1997 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist.
"I'm very disappointed with his departure. He violated disciplinary rules four times during the training program for the upcoming Asian Games," Suwisma said.
Damianus, an Asian Championships bronze medalist, will join featherweight Hermansen Ballo, welterweight Bara Gomies and middleweight Albert Papilaya in the two-month overseas training program. They will leave the country on Sunday.
But Suwisma said the door remained open for La Paene, the only Indonesian boxer who reached the quarterfinals in the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, to return to the Asian Games training camp at the Pencak Silat dormitory in East Jakarta.
"I still consider him a member of the team who will represent Indonesia in the Asiad," Suwisma said.
La Paene was among the country's leading athletes who received government awards during a National Sports Day celebration in Surabaya on Sept. 9. But he parted with his team and has yet to show up at the training camp since then.
He said the boxer had previously complained about family problems. "I told him to call me anytime he had problems, but he never did," said Suwisma, who is chief of Tanjungpura Military Command overseeing Kalimantan.
Coaches Julio Lee Hechavarria of Cuba and Wiem Gomies will also accompany the boxing quartet.
"They can train together with Cuban boxers, who are being groomed for the World Junior Boxing Championships in Argentina late this year," Hechavarria said.
Ballo, one of the three Indonesian boxers who won 1997 SEA Games gold medals, said the Asiad would serve as a stepping stone for the 2000 Olympic Games.
"My main target is to qualify for the 2000 Olympics, so I have to win in the Asiad," he said.
Suwisma said the Cuban stint would cost the boxing body Rp 350 million (US$31,820). The money came from businesspeople, he said.
Volleyball
The National Sports Council announced later on Thursday that it would send the men's volleyball team to the Asiad to replace the national soccer team.
"Volleyball is the second most popular sport in the country after soccer," said Mochamad Hindarto, the national team training director, explaining the reason for the volleyball team's inclusion.
He said the national spikers, who finished third in the Asian Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, in July, were expected to at least reach the quarterfinals.
The council is doubtful the volleyball team can win any medals in the Asiad, according to Hindarto. "They won the Asian Championships bronze in the absence of the continent's heavyweights, China and South Korea."
Hindarto said the national volleyball team deserved a place in the contingent bound to Bangkok because of its SEA Games winning tradition since 1981. It just missed the gold in 1985 and 1995.
Indonesian spikers were absent in the last two Asian Games in 1990 and 1994.
Volleyball training director Suharsono said the decision would boost the sport's development in the future.
"Our target is to improve our ranking of 10th in the 1986 Asiad," he said.
The top seeds at the Asiad are China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Other strong opponents for Indonesia are Iran, Kazakhstan, Thailand, India and Pakistan.
Suharsono said his team plan to train in Changdu and Guangzhou in China for two weeks next month. (yan)