Pertina has yet to prepare boxers for President Cup

Pertina has yet to prepare boxers for President Cup

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Amateur Boxing Association
(Pertina) deputy secretary general Didit Soedijoto said Friday
that the organization had yet to prepare its boxers to compete in
the President Cup in Bali by the end of this month.

"The boxers just joined the centralized training program today
as some of them are still in their hometowns after competing in
the 15th National Games (in Surabaya last month). We have only
three weeks to prepare them while other countries have groomed
their boxers since three months ago," he said, as quoted by
Antara.

Didit expressed concern that national boxers, who were
selected for PON, would not reach their peak performance in the
July 27 to Aug. 3 event.

One hundred and 53 boxers from 21 countries have confirmed
their participation in the event. Some of them are Olympic
qualifiers.

"We don't have high expectations of becoming the overall
champion in the President Cup this year. Hosting the event
successfully is our primary target," Didit said.

However, Pertina still expects national boxers to perform
their best and avoid losing by KOs (knockouts) or RSCs (Referee
Stops Contest) in early rounds.

"We hope there are national boxers who reach the finals," he
said, adding that chef de mission Dali Sofari has responsibility
for our national boxers success.

The President Cup was scheduled to take place in 1998 but due
to the political situation at that time, Pertina delayed hosting
the event until this year.

"This is the deadline for holding the President Cup. Had we
failed, the event would have been dropped from the International
Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) calendar," Didit said.

Pertina has asked AIBA to assign at least 25 referees to
control 27 daily qualifying matches.

Didit estimated the number of boxers would increase several
days prior to the event as the Philippines, South Korea,
Singapore, Uzbekistan, Canada and the Netherlands have yet to
inform the number of their boxers.

"I'm sure the number of boxers will reach 200 and it will be
the biggest event since the first one staged 18 years ago."

Besides the six countries mentioned above and host Indonesia,
Japan, England, India, Germany, Malaysia, Iran, Brunei
Darussalam, Australia, China, Laos, Thailand, Italy, Sri Lanka,
Mauritius, New Zealand, Nepal, Algeria and Myanmar have confirmed
their participation in the event. (yan)