E. Timor athletes gear up for Sydney

E. Timor athletes gear up for Sydney

SYDNEY (AFP): An East Timorese boxer who will compete at the Sydney Olympics said Thursday the spirit of his country would be lifted after four athletes won the right to compete.

"We will be lifting our nation because we never had an opportunity to do it, so this is an opportunity to lift my nation and I'm going to do just that," Victor Ramos told ABC radio.

Along with Ramos, two marathon runners and a weightlifter have been selected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to form the fledgling nation's squad which will march into the stadium second last, just before Australia.

But they will compete as independent athletes dressed in plain white uniforms with no insignia other than the Olympic rings. It is only the second time independent athletes have been allowed to compete in a modern Olympics after a Yugoslav squad in 1992.

Team leader Frank Fowlie, an American staffer of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor, said the athletes could not carry a flag since their country lacked a national Olympic committee.

"While the UN is providing government there, the country of East Timor can't apply for NOC status," he told reporters.

Despite the lack of official recognition of their nation, the squad which has been training at the Northern Territory Institute of Sport for the past six weeks, is brimming with pride.

"It's probably the second most significant event in the history of this young nation after the popular consultation," Fowlie said.

"It's one way of declaring a form of nationhood, taking your place amongst the other 199 nations that are competing in the Olympic Games on a level playing field."

The two men and two women were chosen from 10 athletes who arrived in Darwin from their devastated homeland on July 13.

The most accomplished is Ramos, 30, who will fight in the 60kg division.

The women, Aguida Amaral, 25, and Calisto Da Costa, 22, will run the marathon. Weightlifter Martinho De Araujo, 27, will compete in the 56kg division.