Only Toar through on day two

Fadli, The Jakarta Post, Batam

Indonesian team suffered a turn of fate at the President's Cup here, with middleweight Toar Sompotan emerging on Sunday as the only winner.

Toar took out Chiang Yi Chun of Chinese Taipei with a technical knockout in the first round, but it proved a disappointing day for the remaining six boxers at Tumenggung Abdul Jamal Sports Hall.

Suhaemi and Achmad Amri both went down for the count with KOs in their heavyweight bouts -- Suhaemi in the first round to Eugen Gavrilenko of Kazakhstan and Achmad in the second round to Ravi Gill of India.

Meanwhile, Frianta Purba was beaten 30-10 by RMAB Rathnayaka of Sri Lanka in their bantamweight fight, and lightweight Benget Simorangkir 25-9 to Chung Chun Qiu of Chinese Taipei.

In the light flyweight division, Rizal Djuma put up a tight fight against Nasri of Malaysia before losing 16-14, and Imanuel Maiting was dealt a 29-9 crushing blow by Bill Vicera of the Philippines.

Thirteen matches were played on Sunday, with Kazakhstan, Malaysia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka advancing two boxers each to the next stage and the remaining qualifiers coming from Indonesia, India, Chinese Taipei, Laos and South Korea.

Commenting on the Indonesian boxers' defeats, team manager Frans PB said they needed more frequent sparring bouts to improve their skills.

"The visiting boxers look strong. Sri Lanka has made progress after recruiting a trainer from Cuba," he said.

Saturday was a different story, when four of five Indonesian boxers cruised to the next stage: Abdul Razak, Erico Amanupunyo, Rionando Butar Butar and Daud Yordan.