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August 2004 | |
Interview: Trading Places Safety: Snow Job Politics: In the Vanguard Unions: Gentle Giant Goes For Gold Bad Boss: 'Porker' Chases Blue Ribbon International: Cruising For A Bruising History: Under the Influence Economics: Working Capital Review: Fahrenheit 9/11 Poetry: Bad Intelligence Rap Satire: Osama Bin Manchu
Parliament The Soapbox The Locker Room Tribute Postcard
Tarnished Rings
Bully Drives Deckhand into Drink "Betrayal" Sparks Election Rethink
Tom Goes Asexual Road Rage At Work Democracy In Action Asbestos Bastadry
Labor Council of NSW |
Unions Gentle Giant Goes For Gold
The 125 kilo Judo Master has been training for 17 years for a chance at one and you never know - you might come off second best. On his last day on the job before flying out for three months of training in Korea, Austria and Germany for the Athens Olympics Pepic said if he won gold for Australia he'd be shouting everyone on the Westfield Bondi Junction site a beer. The gentle giant has to go overseas to train to find guys who are big enough to spar with him. "In Australia I don't have any sparring partners," says Pepic "but in Japan there are 25 people as big as me" Pepic competes in the 100+ kilo heavyweight class, the largest of the seven weight divisions. "In Judo you have to get the person on their back and keep them there for 25 seconds. You can also put them in an arm lock or get then under the neck. My signature move is the Osoto-Gary," he says. He won the Oceania Championships in April, beating a Fijian who weighs one hundred and forty five kilos and has been to the Olympics three times, "After four minutes I caught him and threw him. Then I grabbed him after he was on the ground and pinned him on his back for 25 seconds. I won by KO." More prestigiously Pepic recently won the US Open the world's biggest competition - bar the Olympics - with fighters from 43 countries. Though that's not to say winning the competition was wasn't without its hiccups for Pepic, "After my win in the US Open I had to have a urine test for drugs. I was so dehydrated I couldn't piss when the competition ended at 8pm. I sat there and drank four and a half litres of water over four hours and finally was able to piss at Midnight. The whole time four or five people from the drugs committee were sitting there with me!" The Judo Master hasn't lost a match in Australia in one and a half years, and is two times Australian national heavyweight champ. He was unable to compete at Sydney 2000 in green and gold because of surgery on his knee. The Olympic heavyweight competition has 32 competitors and is all over in a single day of bouts. The draw system is the same as Tennis, with everyone getting at least two fights, except there are 2 bronze medals awarded. If you lose a fight you are still in the running for a bronze. The 31-year-old has a greuling training schedule, after work he has a shower, has a first dinner and goes to the gym at NSW University, "I train for two hours, usually a 50 minute warm up, then 30 minutes on technique and then one hour fighting. Then I go home for a second dinner. "It's very hard to train and work, it's like I have two jobs. After work everyone else gets to relax, but I go straight to training and get back home at 10pm." My wife Simona and my 6-year-old daughter Sarah are supportive always, I spend lots of time away, I was in America for 10 days recently, but they always wait and always support me." Pepic says Judo's a spiritual sport, that stimulates the memory and the brain leaving you feel fully relaxed after a session.
"Judo is not just a sport it has all kinds of psychology and a long history in Japanese culture. It wasn't for competition originally but for relaxation," he said. His fellow sparkies have encouraged him because they didn't know anything about Judo and now they are starting to get interested. "they've all told him they'll be watching on the 20th of August when the heavyweights clash in Athens." Pepic had an accident on site this year which saw him risk all his hard work. "When I was getting my licence for the scissor lift they told me 'when you go down a ramp, you have to go backwards because of the way the wheels face' anyway two or three weeks later I went down one forwards and the whole thing went over, I fell three metres," he said. Electrical Trades Union organiser Dan Weizman jokes that Pepic did more harm to the concrete that to himself. "It's a funny story but not all stories have a funny ending. He risked a shot at Olympic gold, it's not worth some stupid risk just to get a job done a bit quicker," says Weizman. After the Olympics Pepic wants to train for another four years, "us heavyweights can keep going until thirty five or even thirty seven."
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