Indian boxers return from brink of disqualification at Rio 2016 Olympics

Manoj Kumar won his bout against 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist Evaldas Petrauskas. (Source: Reuters)

India’s boxing contingent have been reportedly warned for not wearing jerseys with ‘India’ written on the back. The Indian trio of boxers have thus been warned that if one of them shows up with the breach of official wear, the entire team will be disqualified from the competition which has started on a positive note with two wins in two. Both Vikas Krishan and Manoj Kumar have registered victories in their respective bouts so far. Manoj was reportedly warned by during the bout against Evaldas Petrauskas of Lithuania.

“Manoj was told after his bout that, he must wear an India jersey or the entire contingent will be banned. This was also told to the coach and administrators,” a source close to the information told Sportskeeda.

“We have a set of old Indian jerseys before the association got banned, that will be used in Shiva’s (Thapa) bout today. Actually all these days our boxers weren’t allowed to participate with the country name and now they are being allowed again. We were not informed about this by AIBA either. But the situation is under control, Shiva will be fighting with the India jersey,” he added.

India would be expected to avoid such disqualification having already been banned in the past for clash of national bodies and inability to host democratic elections – contrary to the directive of AIBA.