Somjit won gold, then all Thai hearts
Written by Admin on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008
INSIDE STORY
Somjit won gold, then all Thai hearts
WANCHAI RUJAWONGSANTI
Thailand’s four Olympic medallists have been busy attending reception parties, receiving money and gifts and appearing in TV talk shows for more than two weeks since they returned from Beijing.
Had it not been because of the political turmoil, the functions would have received more publicity. Unfortunately, the front pages of most newspapers have been dominated by political issues.
The quartet are weightlifting champion Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon, boxing champion Somjit Jongjohor, boxing silver medallist Manus Boonjumnong and taekwondo silver winner Buttree Puedpong.
Surprisingly, Prapawadee, who won Thailand’s first medal in Beijing, seems to be the least popular among the four medallists. She has been overshadowed even by silver medallists Manus and Buttree.
Prapawadee returned home long before the Beijing Olympics ended late last month and the Thai Amateur Weightlifting Association (Tawa) might have made a wrong move when their bosses did not allow her to talk to the press or join reception functions until after all Thai athletes had arrived home after the Games.
They claimed this to be fairer to the other medallists. As it turned out, the other three medal winners have eclipsed Prapawadee, who is not talkative.
Had Prapawadee not received Tawa’s ban, she would have stolen the show and could have received far more publicity and appearance fees.
Somjit is the most popular among the four because of his perseverance, strict discipline and family man image. His character is also helpful.
He likes singing and can sing beautifully. He is unlike several other boxers who seem to sing just for the sake of it.
Somjit is also humorous and often tells jokes to his teammates. Thanks to his singing skills and friendly character, there have been offers for him to star in movies or soap operas.
Some people say the Buri Ram native has been rewarded handsomely because heaven knows and justice prevails. Had Manus gone all the way in Beijing, he would have become Thailand’s first-ever two-time Olympic champion and overshadowed Somjit’s achievement.
But Manus is still popular because of his past life. He was famous for blowing millions of baht in bonus money from his gold medal from the 2004 Olympics.
He has since claimed he is a reformed man and promised to behave.
He recently met two of his four sons with his ex-wife and gave them 100,000 baht each. He said he would give his ex-wife one million baht and would give money to his four children with her every month.
While Somjit, 33, has retired from boxing and is likely to pursue a new career in coaching, Manus’ future is still uncertain.
He said before the Beijing Games that he wanted to turn professional. But after his defeat against Felix Diaz of the Dominican Republic in the light-welterweight final, he was not so sure.
Many experts believe it is too late for Manus, 28, to turn professional. He often struggles in four-round bouts in amateur boxing, so how could he fight a 12-rounder in professional boxing?
If he continues fighting in amateur boxing, he has to move up to the welterweight division as he has had a problem in making the light-welterweight 64kg limit.
Ironically, Thailand’s current number one welterweight is his own brother Non.
After all the receptions, Taweep Jantararoj, president of the Amateur Boxing Association of Thailand (Abat), will certainly have a headache to build a new squad for the 2012 London Games.
No-one in the current team seems able to win gold in London. Manus will be 32 by that time, while light-flyweight Amnat Ruenroeng will be a similar age. Others look clumsy and lack technique.
Taweep said recently that during the Beijing tournament, he had to give signals to Thailand’s cornermen about how the boxer should box.
If that is true then, he should fire the whole coaching staff and find capable ones.
The future of Thai boxing just does not look bright.
Wanchai Rujawongsanti is Sports Editor, Bangkok Post.
Email: wanchair@bangkokpost.co.th
