Chef ready to win boxing title again

Chef ready to win boxing title again

HIROSHIMA, Japan (AFP): Indonesian middleweight Pino Bahari has packed away his chef's cap and apron here to defend his Asian Games boxing title.

His younger brother Nemo, an architect student of Denpasar, Bali-based state university, is also here with designs on the featherweight medal.

Bahari, 21, who four years ago won a gold medal in the Beijing Asian Games, is studying for a chef's diploma to be able to assist his father in the family's sea-food restaurant in his home town Denpasar.

"In the morning I go to the institute and in the evenings I train at the gym in my home," said the pugilist, who wants to specialize in continental cuisine and whose boxing credentials (could) would make him a handy restaurant bouncer.

He said the presence of powerful competitors from former Soviet republics made him unsure about his prospects in Hiroshima, but "I will give my best for my country."

The brothers serve as each other's sparring partners, but "we don't hit too hard," Pino said.

They inherited their interest in boxing from their father Daniel, a former national coach. Their mother Augustina did not like boxing. "As a woman it was hard for her to see little kids get hurt," he said. "Now she pushes us to train harder all the time."

Meanwhile, the Indonesian swimming team left a few broken hearts behind when they were preparing for the competitions here. Coach Raja Murnisal Nasution could not avoid muttering over a last minute's decision from the national sports body to drop his four women's swimmers.

"The commission took the view that they were unlikely to win any medals, so the day before the final deadline for accreditations, the girls got the bad news," he said. "They were upset and so was I."

The irony is that the Indonesia men have no more of a chance than the women, with Richard Samberra their best hope.

He was third in 200-meter freestyle at the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing and is a slim hope for a bronze here.

Raja, a member of the Indonesian water-polo squad which won the bronze medal at the 1966 and 1970 Asian Games subscribes to the view idealized by the Olympic movement that taking part is more important than winning.

"All the girls had hope," he said. "They worked hard a didn't get a chance to show what they can do."