The Sarita Devi medal controversy finally came to an end on Thursday with the cornered boxer ending her defiance. She appeared before an official committee of the Asian Games and expressed regret over returning the bronze after her controversial loss to a Korean boxer, following which the Olympic Council of Asia re-instated her medal.
“I attended the OCA working group hearing this morning and expressed regret over what happened at the medal ceremony. I told them it had happened in an emotional moment. The OCA has reinstated Sarita Devi as the bronze medal winner. The medal will come to us on Friday morning,” chef de mission Adille Sumariwalla said. He has asked for a review of the bout by an independent panel appointed by OCA. “I have asked for a review of Sarita’s bout by an independent panel appointed by OCA,” said the former national men’s sprint champion.
Earlier in the day, terming Sarita’s decision to not accept the medal on Wednesday as ‘regretful’ and ‘against the spirit of sportsmanship’, Incheon Asian Games Organising Committee (IAGOC) deputy secretary general Cheon-taik Son said the matter was with the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and they would be taking a the decision on the issue.
Incidentally, the IAGOC has written to Amateur International Boxing Association about fairplay at the Games.
Sarita was deprived of a shot at gold medal due to biased judging despite totally dominating her semi-final bout on Tuesday against South Korea’s Jina Park in the lightweight (57-60kg) woman boxing event. In protest, the Glasgow Commonwealth Games silver medalist refused to wear the medal around her neck at the medal ceremony. She accepted the medal in hands and then gifted it to Park. In another bout, a Mongolian boxer also felt cheated and registered a protest.
Incidentally, that bout also involved a South Korean boxer.“The OCA is working on the review of the medal, whether to give it to her or confiscate it,” Cheon-taik Son had said at the morning briefing.“The refusal to accept the medal by the Indian boxer Sarita Devi was regretful and against the spirit of sportsmanship. The matter is now with the working group of the Olympic Council of Asia who would decide on the matter. And it also depends on the athlete,” he had added.
“It’s very regretful and against the goal of Asian unity we had set ourselves for ahead of the Games. It was also against the spirit of sportsmanship and the action showed disrespect to the other athletes. It was a very unfortunate incident,” he said.
Denying that there was any bias against the Indian boxer he said that the scoring in boxing is subjective. “We have ensured that there’s no such thing as home advantage in these Games. Still boxing is a very subjective sport. The spectators might see blood on a boxer’s face but it could be different from the judges’ count of scoring punches,” Son said.
“There have been a lot of protests in boxing but no formal complaints have been lodged. We have written to AIBA. It’s unfortunate that it happened in a game where a Korean was involved.”
Son also said that they have made a lot of efforts to ensure fairness at the Games.
“We wanted to make sure we didn’t just claim to be fair but that we did our best to maintain the integrity of the Games. We introduced an academic programme and provided education and training to judges at the Games,” he said.
The boxer had visually protested over what she perceived as injustice to her and the boxing coach, G S Sandhu, too lodged a written protest, which was rejected by the boxing authorities. The surprising fact, though, is that no word has come from either the Indian Olympic Association or the Indian contingent.
Son indicated the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has also lodged a protest. “I understand a protest is being lodged by IOA,” he said.However, Sumariwalla initially denied it, saying that his primary concern was to see that Sarita and chief coach Sandhu, who had signed the protest letter against the judges, do not get a life ban. “My priority is to see that Sarita and the coach don’t get banned for life,” he had said in the morning.