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