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Changing one’s daily time table
to watch the favourite athletes in action in Olympics seems to be catching up
in India. Only this time it turned out to be more disappointing than before in
the ExCel Exhibition Center for the Boxing event. Thanks to the Referee
Decision Imbroglio. It adds to the agony
when one finds himself invariably at the receiving end.
India sent the strongest ever
Boxing contingent to the Olympics 2012 with a hope of getting few medals and
why not? There were 8 pugilists in the fray, each qualifying in style and
authority at different qualifying tournaments. With the likes of Vijender
Singh, Devendro Singh, Manoj Kumar, Sumit Sangwan, Mary Kom and others, Indians
were quite upbeat about the event and the medals in specific, but the result
unfolded another story. While three of them had tougher opponents, the rest
fought bravely only to be denied to reach a higher round for reasons better
known to the judges.
While AIBA overturned the result
of Indian welterweight pugilist, Vikas Krishan’s victory over American Errol
Spence, India’s Manoj Kumar in the 64 kg weight category was not so lucky. He
lost to the crowd favourite and home grown Thomas Stalker 16-20. India’s Sumit
Sangwan seemed to be a clear winner against Yamaguchi Falcao Florentino of
Brazil in light heavy weight (81kg) category, but the judges decided otherwise.
He lost 14-15 to the Brazilian much to the surprise of the commentators and
spectators. The BBC termed it as “Broad daylight robbery”. It would be
interesting to note the Brazilian’s march to the semifinals and eventually
losing out to the Gold Medalist Egor Mekhontsev of Russia. After defeating the
Indian in the controversial Round of 32, the Brazilian tied up with his Chinese
opponent, Meng Fanlong 17-17, only to be declared winner in the reverse count.
In the quarter final, he over powered World No.1, Cuban, Julio la Cruz Peraza
by 18-15. Cuban Boxing Federation did not have enough money to appeal at AIBA
since it costs $500 every time an appeal is lodged. Finally justice prevailed
at the semi-final when the Brazilian lost to the eventual winner in a
one sided affair, 11-23.
The BBC reported saying the
matches could have been fixed. They said, “We were told $9M had been paid by
Azerbaijan to the International Boxing Authorities in return for two medals”.
However, the International Boxing Federation (AIBA) denied this report and any
wrong doing as IOC did not find any formal evidence of cash for medals.
On 1st of August, in
the bantam weight category, Azerbaijan’s Magomed Abdulhamidov played against
Satoshi Shimizu of Japan. The Japanese pugilist floored his opponent at least
six times in the final round but lost the fight, much to the dismay of the
crowd and the commentators. After an appeal by Japan, the decision was
overturned, Magomed was out from the next round, the Japanese fighter was
reinstated and the referee was sent back on the next plane to Turkmenistan.
As if this was not enough, a few
days later another Azeri, Teymur Mammadov defeated Belarusian pugilist Siarhei
Karneyeu in a narrow margin. In the third round, he committed a number of
“Holding” fouls but was not penalized. The decision was not upheld this time even
after the appeal by Belarus.
Boxing had its fair share of
scandals and accusations of match fixing. At the Seoul Olympics in 1988 when
the American Boxer, Roy Jones Junior lost to his South Korean opponent, three
judges were suspended amid accusations that the boxing authorities had been bribed
$2M by South Korea in return for two Gold Medals.
Siarhei Karneyeu lingered in the ring after
his Olympic heavyweight loss on August 5th, crying and shaking his head in
disbelief after his clutching, holding opponent was awarded a narrow decision
victory. When Cuba`s Jose Larduet fell victim to a similar decision about 15
minutes later, the Belarusian Karneyeu came back up the fighters` tunnel and
intercepted Larduet on the way out of the ring, holding up Larduet`s hand as
the real winner. Both Karneyeu and Larduet felt cheated by their opponents`
clutch-and-grab tactics in the Olympic boxing tournament Sunday night, but
amateur boxing`s governing body disagreed.
There were at least a dozen more
bouts where the decisions looked exactly opposite to what was witnessed by
commentators and spectators but I guess I would leave it for some other day.
What needs to be seen is, will it continue in Rio or Will Justice Prevail?
:- Rakesh S Ranbir
