Boxers get ‘official’ warning

Controversy was the buzzword at the 8th Women’s Boxing Nationals here today with officials deciding...

Controversy was the buzzword at the 8th Women’s Boxing Nationals here today with officials deciding to crack the whip on non-performing teams like Tripura even as Railways and Haryana continued their stiff battle of supremacy inside the ring. Miffed with the walkovers and lopsided bouts involving Tripura, Chairman of the Referees and Officials Commission Lenny D’Gama has threatened to deny them participation certificates.

“Some teams have only been making up the numbers and Tripura is one of them. We will discuss the matter with Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) and we are seriously considering denying them their participation certificates. They need to understand that they are not on a holiday,” D’Gama said.

“Their girls just come to the ring, take a couple of blows and throw in the towel. This is not done, after all it’s the national championship and in their case we have been observing the trend for the past four years,” he added.

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D’Gama, however, has not yet spoken to Tripura’s team management but has decided to approach the IABF on the issue.

Tripura have already crashed out of the tournament with none of their boxers making the quarter finals and no one was available to give their version on the matter.

Manual refereeing also became a subject of controversy with Railways and last year’s runners-up Kerala refusing to take the ring due to non-availability of computer scoring in one of the rings.

A compromise was reached but not before delay of close to one and a half hour in ring number two, which lay vacant until that time. Meanwhile, it was business as usual for tournament favourites as they advanced to medal rounds of their respective categories.

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Defending champions Haryana had a good day with Pinky (46kg), Ritu Ranga (48kg) and Kavita Rani (50kg) advancing to the semi-finals with easy wins.

Railways were not far behind and with World Championship bronze medallist Chhoto Laura (50kg) and Kanak Durga (48kg) already through to the semis, the team is all set to give Haryana a run for their money.