Cuba serves warning to Bahari brothers
JAKARTA (JP): Bahari brothers of Pino and Nemo are facing a possible clash with Cuban rivals at the President's Cup boxing championships starting here this weekend.
World's strongest amateur boxing powerhouse Cuba, a major absentee of the annual event since 1992, will field a small team of two teenagers who are in the same divisions as Pino and Nemo.
"They will come to destroy my sons, but I'm not afraid," Daniel, the father and coach of Pino and Nemo, said yesterday.
Cuban world junior champion Diogenes Martinez, 17, looks to set up a match against lightweight Nemo, the best boxer in the President's Cup last year. In the middleweight category, junior world championships' bronze medalist Yosvani Acosta, 19, will serve notice to defending champion Pino.
The championships, the 17th of its kind, will be held at the Senayan tennis indoor stadium from Aug. 26 to 31, with offering 11 gold medals.
Middleweight Pino and lightweight Nemo, who starred in Indonesia's triumphant campaign last year, were called up to join the national team at the last minute amid an unsettled rift with the national amateur boxing body (Pertina).
Nemo, the Asian Games bronze medalist, and his elder brother Pino, who triumphed in the 1990 Asiad, along with Central Java's Sony Rambing, should have been sidelined from the team for refusing to join the centralized training session here under the tutelage of coach Isidoro Trotman of Cuba.
The three rebel boxers were saved following a personal approach from Chairman of the National Sports Council (KONI) Wismoyo Arismunandar.
Trotman, a friend of Cuban team coach Honorato Reyes, blasted Daniel's statement, saying that all of Cuba's best boxers are now preparing for the American championships in September and the 1996 Olympic Games.
"The allegation is total bull. A boxer always goes to a tournament to fight," Trotman said.
Trotman, who was hired by Pertina last year, groomed Indonesian boxers for the Cup, except Pino, Nemo and Sony.
"All my boxers are in good shape to do their best," he said. But he refused to comment on either the performance or the prospect of the three rebel boxers. "I don't know how they are," he said.
Host Indonesia will field the biggest team in quest for a rare hat trick at the international championships.
Pertina chairman Paul Toding said yesterday that retaining the overall title appears out of question since the 24-strong national team has only been tuning up for the tournament since January.
"I'm still optimistic about our target of notching back-to- back victory," Paul said after a meeting with KONI chairman Wismoyo yesterday.
Indonesia won the inaugural meet in 1978 but had to wait for 15 years before regaining the top spot. In the absence of major contenders from Cuba, South Korea and Kazakhstan, Pino and Nemo led the national team to its second straight overall championship title last year.
Pertina picked out 24 boxers out of 60 for the tournament. The national team will be split into three squads: Garuda, Rajawali and Elang.
Pugilists from noted boxing powerhouses in the world will be among more than 110 boxers from 14 countries who have confirmed their entry at the annual event.
China, inspired by its impressive growth in professional boxing, will make a comeback at the international boxing meet sanctioned by the Association of International Boxing Amateur. (arf/amd)