The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 7

BEST CP3 ChC 5lin AUGUST 13, 1984 wryfv-v vt r- SI' ie's strode took tumble old didn't pan out Ml liwA iiII By ARCHIE McDONALD Sun Sports Columnist LOS ANGELES With all the lavish publicity he successfully courted before these Olympic Games, Willie deWit must have thought he had died and gone to heaven. He came back to earth on the weekend reincarnated as George Chuva-lo. The 23-year-old from Grand Prairie, who was ballyhooed to win the amateur heavyweight boxing championship of the free world, fell hard on his reputation this week, wounding his marketability for a' pro career, details of which will be announced Aug. 23. He was awarded two questionable decisions and scored one crackling knockout but, ultimately, American Henry Tillman exposed embarrassing flaws in him during the gold medal bout Saturday.

DeWit led with his head and followed with ponderous hooks which were thrown off balance. Canadians could not help but be reminded of Chuvalo, who for a generation carried the Great White North's heavyweight hopes, shuffling ever forward on big flat feet. The world has never questioned the courage of Canadian boxers, only their intelligence. Following a week of concentrated viewing, it can be concluded that they did nothing here to change the reputation. Toronto's Shawn O'Sullivan, the people's favorite, unfortunately was not the judges' choice.

He dropped a 5-0 decision to Frank Tate, even though the American took two standing eight counts in the second round and came close to a third, which would have ended the bout. Certainly, there was a case to be made that O'Sullivan was robbed of a gold medal, but the silver may have been a just result after his dubious semi-final verdict over Frenchman Christophe Tioz-zo. Reacting to pressure from the medical profession and from rumbles within the Olympic movement, amateur boxing has tried to neutralize damaging blows. It has resulted in standing eight counts whenever a fighter gets in slight trouble, and this is the vital point a standing eight count is worth only as much as any other punch. An aggressive fighter who lands hard blows, is outpointed by the man who retreats but connects more frequently with pitter-patter punches.

The Americans understood this and took full advantage, running and jabbing throughout, but the Canadians never seemed to adjust. Of course, apart from Burnaby bronze medalist Dale Walters, none could throw a really good left jab, the basic tool of attack. O'Sullivan took defeat with his customary good graces but noted: "I think the officials have been intimidated. Basically they are bending over backwards for the Americans, who have boxers who move a lot. The defensive style has taken over in this tournament." As much as anything amateur boxing wants to say to world and its doctors: "See, what a safe sport we have.

Not like the professionals." Maybe that's where deWit went wrong, by embarking on a professional career before he had won his Olympic crown. He 'A, WsmMmmmmm UPC photo DISTRAUGHT Willie deWit (left) stares at floor while Henry Tilleman (centre) waves to crowd. Bronze medalist Angelo Musone is at right. CP photo LORI FUNG. was key to gold medal Vancouver's Fu did not stay in the village here and rarely associated with teammates.

He was at the Olympics in body but not in spirit, which seems a shame. The professional game certainly will be more accommodating. "A lot of amateur rules are a hindrance to me," he says. "I'd love to get him (Tillman) as a pro. I wouldn't have to go rushing in.

I'd have 10 rounds." Certainly, deWit is better than he showed here. He had to be to win the world championship against a Russian and to defeat Tillman four months ago. He has been eating one meal a day to make the 201 pound weight limit, which may have sapped his strength. Maybe he choked on the pressure, largely brought on by the confident assessments of coach Harry Snatic, who saw the Muhammad Ali type of hype as a big headstart on a million dollar pro career. Was Willie Boy overrated? "Well maybe," concedes a numbed Snatic.

"The silver medal is certainly not as good as the gold. It definitely makes him less marketable, but he's still marketable. He's a good fighter, a good looking young man. He's articulate. "Technically he needs a lot of improve-ment.

He has to work on defence, on movement, on balance. He was like a bull coming in today. The other guy stepped to the side and neutralized it. He didn't start until he was 17 and you don't learn so fast at that age because every time you get hit you get hurt." Haven't we heard this before? For Snatic, substitute Tony Dowling. Dowling had a willing heavyweight named Gordie Racette out of Port Alberni who didn't start fighting for money until his mid 20s.

Racette never fulfilled the had a lot to learn and not enough time," Dowling would say. DeWit will be backed by Texas oil money and have a slick promotional machine shaping his white hope image. They'll pick his spots very carefully, which is reassuring. prise-gold wins sur Undid fils Bif side of By Sun News Dispatches Zola Budd of Britain has disclaimed responsibility for a clash on the track with Mary Decker of the United States that ended their respective hopes for gold at the Summer Olympics. "All I want to say about the whole thing is that I am convinced I didn't do anything wrong," the South African-born athlete said in a copyright article Monday in the London Daily Mail.

The London newspaper has been instrumental in helping 18-year-old Budd obtain British citizenship and has been serializing By MIKE BEAMISH Sun Sports Columnist LOS ANGELES Lori Fung wasn't supposed to be on the victory stand Saturday night, tears pouring from her face as she became Canada's final gold medalist of the Los Angeles Olympics. After all, gymnastic champions are supposed to come from exotic faraway places like Romania, West Germany, Japan, even Fairmont, W. the home of America's lastest heartflip, Mary Lou Retton. i But Canada? Well, that's a little farfetched as the folks who relay Olympic events a teletext machine here must have reasoned. They incorrectly identified Lori Fung of phina as the winner of the rhythmic gymnastics event.

But the skepticism is understandable. Even with the Soviets and their allies twirling their ribbons elsewhere, Lori was considered a longshot to win the gold. Not even in her hometown of Vancouver, where Lori Fung of China was born and raised, has the elegant 21-year-old athlete made Jnuch of an impact But few athletes of Canada or any country performed with as much sensuous beauty, lithe grace and unbridled emotion at the Los 'Angeles Games as did Lori Fung. One of the newest Olympic sports, rhythmic is a close relative of artistic gymnastics, he one with the vault, bars and beams, and Jhe pert and explosive Nadias, Olgas and laryLous. But there are distinct differences between the gym cousins, the most obvious being that Rhythmic gymnasts don't perform en apparatus but with them.

The conventional wisdom is that rhythmic gymnasts should be long, lean and lithe, not, short, powerful and bouncy, as is the vogue in artistic gymnastics. Using clubs, a satin ribbon attached to a clender wand, a colored ball and a striped Jioop, the gymnasts undulate, whirl and spin gracefully and acrobatically to piano accompaniment. It may sound like child's play. But the reality of creating an effortless program of uninterrupted motion, deft juggling, split-legged leaps and ball-handling wizardry would daunt a prima ballerina and confound a Harlem Globetrotter. Donna Forward, the Vancouver pianist Jwho works with Lori, admits she knew little bout rhythmic gymnastics before she met Lori at a guest ranch last summer in the tariboo.

"I can't believe this," said the teary-eyed orward, trying to steady her hands to snap a picture of Lori on the victory stand. "A year ago I didn't know this sport existed. Now Lori is the Olympic champion." Earlier this year, Donna went with Fung on trips to Bulgaria and France where Lori attempted to raise her world standard enough to allow her to compete in Los Angeles. Despite being a three-time Canadian champion, Lori's 23rd placing at last year's world championship was not good enough for her to be included on the Olympic team. But she went to a number of major international meets to raise her standing.

After seme impressive results, the COA reevaluated her standing to eighth in the world and Fung was on her way to L. A. While the Soviet boycott improved Fung's chances, there were several women in the competition rated ahead of Fung, among them the Romanian Doina Staiculescu, a petite 16-year-old who was sixth in the last world championship. Lori spent a month training with Staiculescu in Romania earlier this year and the two are good friends. Entering the evening, Lori was in a three-way tie for third, although Staiculescu's lead seemed sufficient for the gold medal provided she didn't make any glaring errors.

The key to Fung's gold medal was her ribbon routine. Many competitors were fell to the pressure or were bedevilled by the arena's strange air currents and wacky, intermittent air conditioning. Lori's coach, Mall Vesik, noticing that the system would be operating full blast when it came time for her athlete's ribbon routine, told Lori not to worry and she scored 9.70. Staiculescu, who had been scoring 9.7s and 9.9s, she was confounded by the eddying air inside Pauley Pavilion and, twice, the tiny Romanian had to pause momentarily when her ribbon became entangled and scored a low 9.25. Fung won by the scantest of margins.

Her total of 57.950 points was only .05 more than the Romanian's score. Lori was stunned. Then she and her pianist embraced and wept unabashedly. Afterward, she was joined by her parents, Dr. Edward Fung, a third-generation Canadian who is president of the B.C.

Federation of Modern Rhythmic Gymnastics, mother Ada and sister Cheryl and joined in a moist and joyful round of hugs, kisses and picture taking. "I couldn't believe it when they told me," Lori said. "Maybe when I wake up tomorrow and pinch myself I'll realize what I've done. But right now I'm in shock." mil11 low congratulatory banner hangs over the door, a Canadian flag flutters on the roof, and a large colored photo of Morris decorates a window. "Alwyn told me earlier in the week he wanted only the gold," said half-brother Joey Brady, a member of the reserve's police force who followed the competition on television.

"I knew he would break through everything with Hugh Fisher." In June, the band raised $12,000 to help Morris go to Los Angeles. "I took only a few hours on a local radio-thon to raise that amount," noted Norton. "It's the first time a band youth has distinguished himself in a major international competition and we wanted to show him our entire support." In a high tech assault on the cheats, the Los Angeles Games provided the Olympic anti-doping squad with its biggest-ever haul, running into double figures for the first time. "Eleven tests have proved positive and there could be two more," Prince Alexandre de Merode, Belgian head of the Olympic Medical Commission said Sunday. In Athens, Greek javelin champion Anna Verouli, who failed to qualify for the final of her Olympic event and was found to have used anabolic steroids, Sunday denied she had taken any drugs and said she was ready to fly back to Los Angeles for another test "They should send me back to America.

There must have been some mistake, I am 100 per cent clean," Verouli said in an interview published in the daily cewspaper Ethnos. "The government has to protect me. They should send me back to Los Angeles. I should not be condemned like that. How could I be doped and throw only 58 metres?" her Olympic diary.

"There's no point in trying to apportion blame but I can understand Mary's frustration and anger," Budd wrote. "She says it's my fault. "I'm not saying it's her fault." After taking the lead in the final Friday, Budd said she was thrown off balance by a sudden bump from behind. BUDD Budd said she felt "very, very sorry" for Decker. "It's all so unfortunate and unfair for both of us." The American, she added, had long been her idol "and this hasn't changed anything." A Johannesburg businessman, Joe Berar-do, has offered a $65,000 purse for a rematch between U.S.

track star Mary Decker and Zola Budd, the South African Broadcasting Corporation said Sunday. "This could break Zola's confidence," he told the SABC. "It's like falling off when learning to ride a bicycle or a horse if you don't get on again soon, you never master it. I think another race now would be very good for both Mary and Zola." Berardo said it would be up to the London Daily Mail, which has Budd under contract, to arrange the new confrontation. The Mohawks of the Caughnawaga reserve near Montreal plan to send five busloads of people to the airport next Wednesday to give a hero's welcome to Alwyn Morris, the hometown boy who took Olympics gold with partner Hugh Fisher in the canoeing race.

"We are proud, very proud," said band chief Joe Norton. He said the community will celebrate the win with a parade and a banquet, probably on Friday. A local institution, possibly the canoe club 26-year-old Morris has been attending for several years, will be named after him. News of his Saturday exploit spread like wildfire through the reserve, where his grandparents house has been plastered with signs by well-wishers for several days. A yel "I think it was Mary's knee on my left leg.

Thrown off balance, I lurched a little and felt pain as spikes raked down the back of my left heel. I fought for balance and suddenly I sensed Mary falling. "I couldn't believe it. It was terrible. I wanted to stop.

I wanted it all to end. And, in truth, the race for me was already over." Afterwards, she said Decker shouted at her and refused to accept her apologies. "She looked at me and she said, 'Get out of here. Get out. Just go.

I won't talk to "I just stood there. I was frightened I was crying and I just stood there." "I saw Cornelia Buerkli (of Switzerland) go up to her and I heard her say, 'It wasn't Zola's fault, Mary. Not her Mary Decker answered, 'Yes, it was. I know it was. It Forty-seven nations won medals at the Summer Olympics, 11 more than managed to do so in Moscow four years ago and only one off the all-time record..