During a press conference last Thursday, the Frenchman, who replaced David Booth from England, made a great first impression after promising, in French, to lead the team back to championship glory. However, to everyone's surprise, Naris, or "Toey", sat in the audience frowning with his head in his hands.

Was this a sign of dissatisfaction with the new regime? Didn't he like this new coach? To clear the air he simply said: "Last year I thought communicating with the coach in English was difficult. But this year, French, can you imagine? How am I going to understand anything he says?"

Beauty must become the beast

No matter how tight her training schedule is, taekwondo star Yaowapa Boorapolchai still manages to do what women can't do without: shopping. After almost a month of intensive training - which included three sessions per day in Seongnam, South Korea, under the supervision of coach Choi Young-seok - she returned home last week weighed down with luggage. Not to mention the hand baggage she was carrying.

The 2004 Olympic bronze medallist, not to be outdone on the beauty stakes, admitted to having spent more than 256,500 won or Bt10,000 on Etude, a best-selling cosmetics brand in South Korea. She said most of her purchases were facial products including lotion.

That clearly explains why she's been looking so good recently. But beauty alone will not be enough when the Bangkok WTF World Cup Taekwondo Team Championships kick off next week. Fans are looking forward to seeing Yaowapa kicking some butt on the way to another medal.