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Canada's Olympic hope is an Indian immigrant

Eugene Correia in Toronto

Indo-Canadians have represented Canada in the Olympics, but Andrew (Inderjit) Kooner will be the first to wear the national colours in an individual sport.

Indians have dominated the hockey field and it's no surprise that many Indo-Canadians have worn Canadian national colours at the international level, including Olympics, and continue to do so. But individual sport has been a different story.

The 21-year-old Kooner has broken new ground in the history of Indo-Canadians. "I'm happy to have been selected and I hope I can win the gold medal," said the confident boxer from Windsor.

Currently attending a coaching camp at Alberta before going to Hawaii for high-altitude training, Kooner is the national flyweight champion. He has held six other national titles in different classes.

At the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, held in September 1998, Kooner bagged a bronze medal and in June the same year he won a gold medal at a exhibition tournament in Liverpool (England).

His other notable achievements were in 1996 when he won the European Championships in Siofok (Hungary) beating an Ukrainian boxer, and finishing as a losing finalist to a Cuban opponent in the World Junior Championships in Havana (Cuba).

In April this year, Kooner started off badly by losing both matches in the first Olympic qualifier in Tampa Bay (Florida), but made amends in the second qualifier, in Tujauna (Mexico) later that month, by winning three matches.

Unfortunately, he couldn't compete in the final because of injury, but his victories were enough to earn him a place in the Canadian team.

Kooner was born in England and came to Canada when he was just three, along with his parents -- dad Ranjit, who works for General Motors, and mom Joan.

His older brother is studying computers, while the younger one is still in school.

Kooner, who took a year off studies, says he would be joining either University of Windsor or St. Claire's College to pursue a career in kinesiology. "I hope to be a personal trainer," he says.

Asked what are his assets, the 5-ft-6-in, 120-pound Olympic hopeful said he isn't a power puncher but rather a "smart boxer."

Inspired by his idol Muhammad Ali, Kooner says he can "sting like a bee and float like a butterfly." He has been training hard, at least three times a day.

On his introduction to the sport, Kooner says he was not interested in taking up the sport, but since he was an aggressive child his father thought he would do well at either karate or boxing.

He remembers that his mother's colleague at a daycare center had a boyfried who was a boxing coach and that he was taken to meet him. He has progressed from being a reluctant child to a champion.

Kooner's coach, Charlie Stewart, rests his hopes on his Olympic ward. He says: "It depends on the draw. I hope he doesn't come up against a tough opponent in the early rounds." he says.

The Windsor Amateur Boxing Club coach, who trained the only Canadian Olympic winner Lennox Lewis, says he had trained Kooner when he was a young lad.

"After a gap of few years, when he trained elsewhere, he has returned back to me," says Stewart, who is one of the coaches training the Olympic team.

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