Time to start creating champion boxers

Budi A. Sanusi, Contributor, Jakarta

Fortunately, Indonesia had only two boxers representing it in the 14th Asian Games in Busan, South Korea, otherwise, the country would have suffered a more bitter humiliation.

The defeat of Bonyx Saweho and Bara Gommies in the opening matches might have come as a most unpleasant upset. Nobody had even the slightest idea that they would be eliminated at such an early stage, taking into account the number of rigorous and intensive trial matches held both at home and in Cuba, the preeminent amateur boxing stable of the world.

By going through weeks of hard training and tough sparring with some of Cuba's finest fighters, it was initially expected that Bonyx and Bara would offer stiff resistance and that they would not fall in the preliminaries. The reality, though, was that Bonyx, who fought in the 48-kilogram class, was declared unfit to fight Tajikistan's Mekrodj Umarov. The referee was forced to call an end to the fight during the third round. Middleweight Bara was soundly beaten at the hands of, or rather, the fists of Thai Parathinphimai.

Wins and losses are part and parcel of the game, they say. However, it was, of course, unwise to find justification for a defeat nobody can deny. A failure needs no justification when what was needed was correction and comprehensive review.

Observing the team's preparations before flying to Busan, I, for my part, had sensed a pessimism, or let's say, a feeling of insecurity. Why always Cuba, the home country of chief coach Jose Torres? Why not Europe or the United States for that matter? Torres said that in Cuba the Indonesian boxers could take part in many quality tournaments. Was that true? No reports were made available. Nobody knows. It is also a big question whether the sparring partners of Bonyx and Bara were really ranked among the world's best.

A lot of other questions could have been raised, but once again no satisfactory answers would have been found out. Apparently, efforts to conceal the truth were in the offing. There must be something fishy going on, one would speculate. If these allegations are true, it's high time those in charge of national amateur boxing put their house in order, reflecting on the fiasco and immediately making amends as to what to do next.

They should ask themselves what they have given to the boxers. Boxers are not robots. They need a human approach as people are not commodities. The officials should have understood their charges and not the other way around. They should be motivated into raising their performance to the desired height through hard training.

Regeneration seems to be the only answer to remedy the state of national amateur boxing, which is now in the doldrums. The officials should turn to new blood. On the shoulders of the junior boxers lies the hope that they are worthy replacements for the old warriors, whose legs were shaky and punches gone awry because of overexposure, fatigue and, of course, age.

The juniors should be given a strong impetus to do better than their predecessors. On the other hand, the battered and bruised seniors should be aware of the fact that they will not be able to race against age and that it is high time they called it a day.

If we look back, however, the performance of our national boxers in the past was something that we could take pride in. Take for example, the legendary Syamsul Anwar Harahap, Wim Gommies, Ferry Moniaga and Frans VB to mention a few. They were all never-say-die boxers with an unwavering spirit and great skills, and last but not least, a strong personality; qualities that enabled them to rule the roost and rank themselves among the finest in Asia in the 1970s.

Talent and skill alone will not make a good boxer if they are not equipped with a high degree of discipline, quality coaches and the right training methods and systems coupled with a psychological approach.

But as the natural demeanor and characteristics of the athletes vary from one to another, the use of psychology should likewise be applied differently to every single boxer.

The old myth that says champions are born and not created, seems to be obsolete in this high-tech era. Champions can be made and created through various kinds of training and psychological methods. Athletes from China, Japan and Korea are shining examples of this newly found theory.

The myriad of problems befalling Indonesian sports, in this case national boxing, can only be solved by the officials concerned.

Now is the time to start creating champion material and not illusively waiting for the arrival of born champions.