Devendro goes down; Mary Kom gets Bronze and Tintu Luka qualifies…

Devendro goes down; Mary Kom gets Bronze and Tintu Luka qualifies…

In the early morning  Indian boxer Laishram Devendro Singh’s bid for an Olympic bronze medal was dashed after he lost to Ireland’s Paddy Barnes in a high-voltage quarter final contest which was marked by some debatable refreering and controversial warnings at the Excel Arena at London.

There have been some rank bad decisions which can be termed as prejudiced verdicts.  Earlier, India filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sports after the country`s protest against the controversial ouster of 69kg boxing medal hope Vikas Krishan from the Olympics was rejected by the world governing body of the game.  Acting Chef-de-Mission and Indian Boxing Federation Secretary General P K Muralidharan Raja said in a release that India has submitted a "preliminary complaint" in writing to the CAS in Switzerland against AIBA`s decision to reverse Vikas` win over Errol Spence of USA in a 69kg bout last night.

In a stunning reversal of fortunes, Vikas (69kg) was ousted after AIBA overturned the result of his pre-quarterfinal bout, that he had won, following a review.  The 20-year-old had won 13-11 over Errol Spence in a thrilling contest  but following an appeal by his rival's team management, the AIBA awarded the bout 15-13 to the American citing the fouls committee by the Indian which were not noticed by the referee.  The counter appeal submitted by India to AIBA was not accepted by them on the grounds that their Jury has already reviewed the bout and given its decision. India`s stance was that the fouls committed by Errol Spence in round 2 & 3 were not considered by AIBA and they only took into account the points lodged in the protest by USA.

Devendro suffered cruelly losing to Ireland’s Paddy Barnes in a high-voltage quarter final contest which was again  marked by some debatable refreering and controversial warnings.  The 20-year-old Devendro fought gallantly last night but could not prevail over his stronger opponent who scripted a 23-18 victory to romp into the semi-finals.  The Indian contingent were left fuming as they claimed that the refreeing had gone heavily against the diminutive Indian who was warned once in the second round.  The Indians were livid with the point decisions which they claimed had been extremely unfair on Devendro.  “There were so many mistakes against our boxers. He (Barnes) was not hitting the right spots and still getting points. It was not fair,” India’s foreign coach B I Fernandez said after the bout. Coach Gurbakhsh Singh Sandhu said some times referees go with the crowd and Devendro was hit hard by that.

Earlier at around 0615pm IST on 8^th Aug !2, Mary Kom went down fighting to Nicola Adams of Great Britain,  having to settle for a well deserved Bronze medal.  Today, round 1 was not so good  for Mary Kom as Nicola led 3-1; after the Second it was 5-2 as lead kept increasing steadily.  After 3 – it was 8-4 and in the last Mary Kom could not make it ending down 11-6 defeat.  It was somewhat easy for Nicola in the end.  She was more accurate and Mary never really managed to get going. The Indian threw a lot of punches but very few of them hit.  The 29 year old who made the Nation proud later said sorry to the Nation that she could not win Gold or Silver.   

Now Indian newspapers and commentators will strongly criticize the National Hockey team for losing  five consecutive matches including a 3-0 defeat to Belgium in its last game.  No doubt it is a new low.  The players did play spirited unlike the Tennis stars who made so many comments and demands – one even had her mother as Manager and yet none produced any quality performance. The Authorities should have stood firm and disqualified them all, instead of bowing to all their unnatural unjust demands.   

Though  not in with a real chance, we now look forward to Tintu Luka.  If PT Usha is to be believed then Tintu Luka should at least make it to the 800m final. Of course, these hopes are a result of the stellar performances that she has put up over the last few years.

India’s 800m runner Tintu Luka qualified for the semifinals after coming third in the heats with a time of 2:01.75, beating Morocco’s Malika Akkaoui by just 0.03 seconds. The 23-year-old Luka found herself boxed in between the taller runners, but gave it her all in the last 30 metres to qualify for the semis.  Tintu, who trains at PT Usha’s academy, will now compete in the semis on Thursday at 12 AM IST (midnight).  The runner’s season best is 2:01.09 and she will have to at least equal or beat that to stand a chance of qualifying for the finals.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

9^th Aug 2012.