In the ring,a sit-in protest

Dramatic as it may have been,Meitei’s sit-in wasn’t the first protest of its nature at the boxing events at the 57 th School Nationals which concluded at the Chhatrasal Stadium on Monday. Throughout the competition,various states had protested vociferously against what they said was biased refereeing in favour of the home side.

Eventually Meitei’s coach Narajit Singh came up to the ring and had him get up and leave. “I told him what was the point of protesting. Others had protested before but there had been no decision overturned. It was best to avoid any further trouble and instead get behind his other team mates and motivate them,” said Narajit Singh,coach of the Manipur side.

Claims of innocence

While the officials protested their innocence,it was clear where public opinion lay among the boxers on the sidelines,many of whom had been ousted by Delhi players earlier in the competition. As the local side became pantomime villains,the spectators adopted as favourites any fighter facing a Delhi boy. Soon after Meitei’s protest,players from Punjab and Maharashtra were shrieking Hato (kill him in Manipuri) as another Manipur boxer faced a local boy.

To be fair,in several instances the protests seemed motivated by sheer disappointment rather than actual justification. Eventually even boxers from Haryana weren’t spared even though they too had suffered their share of reverses against the Delhi contingent. Shouts of boos were sounded out from the Tamil Nadu side after Priyakumar lost on points to a Haryana’s Ashish Dahiya in the 57-60kg in the under-17 category.

Priyakumar had been the more watchable boxer firing one haymaker after another and even landing a few that had his opponent stumbling but the Haryana boy had been the more accurate boxer connecting repeatedly with his straight jabs. The Meitei bout was fought much in the same manner. And all Delhi boxers didn’t just have to show up to win. Immediately after Pawan’s victory,the next two Delhi boxers lost on points to Manipuri boxers.

The protests cast a shadow on what was a otherwise a strong showing by the Delhi squad who emerged overall champions as 17 players won gold out of a total 30 possible in the U-14,U-17 and U-19 categories while another 9 won silver.