Incheon, Oct 1: India's L Sarita Devi (60kg) was robbed of a sure place in the women's 60kg boxing final when the verdict went in favour of her South Korean rival Jina Park in a bout the Indian dominated, after her senior teammate M C Mary Kom stormed into the gold medal round in the 51kg class at the Asian Games here.
Sarita Devi and middle weight (75kg) woman boxer Pooja Rani, who too lost her semi final bout, settled for bronze while two men boxers Vikash Krishan (75kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg) fought their way into the semi finals by winning their quarter finals at the Seonhak Gymnasium.
Two other men L Devendro Singh (49kg) and Shiva Thapa (56kg) - made their exit after losing their quarter final bouts and would return home without a medal.
Though the day's proceedings ended with Satish Kumar and Vikas assuring India of at least two bronze medals after Mary Kom made sure of a silver, to go with the two bronze medals won by Sarita and Pooja, the daylight robbery of Sarita?s place in the gold medal contest left a bitter taste in the mouth.
woes, the protest lodged by the Indian camp against the verdict, after paying USD 500, was also rejected .
But what triggered massive outrage was Sarita's loss which left the Manipuri in tears. Up against home favourite Jina Park, Sarita, the Commonwealth Games silver-medallist, went down 0-3 despite clearly being the better boxer.
Sarita simply pummelled her rival with her flurry of quicksilver blows -- at times raining four to her rival's one.
But shockingly, Park was not given a single standing count by the Algerian referee Hammadi Yakoub Kheira despite looking rocked back by Sarita's blows to her chin.
In the end, all three ringside judges ruled in favour of the Korean by identical 39-37 margins.
The ringside judges were Braham Mohamad of Tunisia, Albino Foti of Italy and Mariusz Josef Gorny of Poland.
Immediately after the bout, a tearful Sarita broke down while talking to journalists.
"All my hard work has come to nought. It has happened to me but kindly see that this kind of injustice is not meted out to anyone else in the competition. I request you," she said tearfully with folded hands.
"If they wanted to award the bout to her, then why allow us to fight in the first place," she added.
Her husband and former footballer Thoiba Singh was even more furious and shouted obscenities at the ring officials, saying it was a clear case of cheating.
"You are killing boxing," he shouted repeatedly and even went to the extent of trying to enter the ring again to cry out at the injustice but was prevented by the security officials.
India's long-time Cuban coach B I Fernandez also called it a clear case of cheating, but said no purpose would be served by lodging a protest.
"There's no point. It was pre-decided, the 3-0 verdict is a clear cut indication. The Korean deserved to have been given many standing counts, going by what happened in the ring, and the bout should have been stopped," he said.
"Sarita was a clear-cut winner but money has talked here and the judges deserve to be thrown out. It happened in Seoul during the 1988 Olympic Games, it's happening now again.
Nothing seems to have changed. The new rules have made no difference," he fumed.
Later, the International Boxing Association's (AIBA) technical Committee rejected the appeal against this scandalous verdict.
Prior to the action-charged and scandalous bout, India's best medal hope and former five-time world champion Mary Kom scored a convincing 3-0 victory over her taller Vietnamese opponent Ler Thi Bang.
Two of the ringside judges adjudged her the winner by giving her 40-36 score in the four rounds combined while the third put her 39-37 ahead on points.
Mary was a clear winner even though she was the shorter of the two southpaws, she easily came inside the Vietnamese boxer's territory to score with jabs and rights to the face.
Mary, who won a bronze in the 2010 Asian Games and the 2012 Olympic Games before taking a break from the sport, is now assured of at least a silver medal.
However, Sarita's shock defeat also left her with mixed emotions.
"I am shocked and disappointed. Sarita was the clear winner. This should not have happened," she said.
She will now fight against Zhaina Shekerbekova of Kazakhstan who earned a 3-0 verdict over N Myagmardulam of Mongolia in the other semifinal bout.
"I will keep my focus because a gold has to be won for the country," she said.
Later, Pooja put a spirited performance against Qian but eventually lost the bout 2-1 to finish a bronze-medallist, leaving Mary Kom with the task of earning the first-ever gold in women?s boxing for the country.
The men?s quarter final bouts followed after which only Vikas (75kf) and Satish Kumar (+91KG) sailed through to the last four while their lesser weighing compatriots Devendro (49kg) and Thapa (56kg) were sent packing.
Thapa, the reigning Asian champion who is ranked third in the world, lost a unanimous points verdict against his Filipino rival Mario Fernandez, with the three judges ruling 30-27, 29-28, 30-27 in the winner?s favour.
Devendro followed him to the exit gate, beaten 3-0 by South Korea?s Shin Jonghum. The Indian, who took the fifth spot in the London Olympics two years ago, lost 28-29, 27-30, 27-30.
In between these two bouts super heavy boxer Satish Kumar earned a split (2-1) points verdict against Jordan?s Eishaish Hussein. He will meet Ivan Dychko of Kazakstan in the semis on October 2.
At the end of the day Vikas, the defending champion, won the battle of southpaws against Hurshidben Normatov of Uzbekistas with a unanimous 3-0 (29-28, 30-27, 29-28) points verdict to bring down curtains on the Indians? show for the day. He meets A Zhanibek of Kazakstan on October 2 in the semis.
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