Wismoyo tries to heal rift
Wismoyo tries to heal rift
JAKARTA (JP): National Sports Council president Wismoyo
Arismunandar has stepped in to settle a rift over national top
boxers who refuse to join the centralized training program for
the Southeast Asian Games in December.
Wismoyo expressed yesterday his apparent deep concern about a
decision by the national amateur boxing body to sideline the
Bahari brothers, Pino and Nemo, from the national team, saying
that both parties should keep their cool and talk to each other.
"Pino and Nemo are our assets. They have big chances of
obtaining gold medals for Indonesia," Wismoyo said. Middleweight
Pino won the 1990 Asian Games gold and Nemo took the bronze in
the Games last year.
Both pugilists opposed the boxing body's decision which
requires them to train in Jakarta with the national team if they
want to represent Indonesia in the upcoming SEA Games in Chiang
Mai, Thailand. Instead, they opted to work out in their hometown
of Denpasar, Bali under tutelage of their father Daniel.
"A long-term centralized training program is not a must if our
athletes are provided with facilities in their respective
provinces," said Wismoyo. "The athletes will only gather for a
few weeks to form solid team work," he added.
The national training program for the Dec. 9-17 SEA Games
formally began early this month and will wind up in November.
KONI let each sporting body decide its training method, but
regularly required reports on the progress of the training.
The boxing body called up 26 boxers for the SEA Games training
program early this year, but five of them have since quit for
various reasons which range from injury and poor attendance. Pino
and Nemo were off the list of recruits.
Only 12 places are open on the national SEA Games boxing team.
Indonesian pugilists brought home a modest medal collection of
two golds, one silver and five bronzes in the 17th SEA Games in
Singapore two years ago. The Philippines and Thailand shared
supremacy in the ring with five golds each. (amd)