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)