I was literally in a state of shock when I saw Vijender Singh (ace Indian boxer) getting beaten by Uzbekistan’s Abbos Atoev 13-17 in a nail-biting quarterfinal of London 2012 Olympics boxing on Monday (August 6th, 2012).

(A shot taken by me during the CWG Delhi 2010 boxing Semi-final of Vijender singh in red)

The former World No. 1 middleweight(75 kgs) boxer Vijender Singh was tied at 3-3 after the first round but made a flurry of punches in the second round, yet the referees shockingly announced that the round score was 7-5.

Though Vijender made a strong quest in the third and final round, every analyst & commentator felt that Vijender had done sufficient to win the second & third round, yet the referees announced that the 3rd round score-card was 7-5.

Thus, Vijender shockingly lost the bout 13-17 ;((((((((((

Poor umpiring cost Vijender singh the chance to become the first Indian athlete to win two successive medals at Olympics games.

After having seen the bout about 20 times in the last 15 hours, I can tell you that at least 5 scoring punches of Vijender singh weren’t counted in the final score-sheet (4 from Round-2 & minimum of 1 from Round-3).

After the match, we all were discussing if Indian boxing contingent will be filing an appeal against the decision or not?

So, I had a detailed look-up at the International Boxing association (the regulator of Boxing is AIBA : International Amateur Boxing Association) rules for understanding the conditions where in the decision & announced result can be protested & here are all the details of my findings :::::::

(i) A protest/appeal against the judgement shall be submitted by the Team Leader or by the person having the highest position in the Team Delegation no later than 30 minutes after the completion of the bout.
Any protest shall be against the decision(s) of the Referee and/or Judges of the bout.

(ii) The protest shall be made in writing and handed to the Chairperson of the Competition Jury specifying definitive and clear reasons for the protest.

(iii) The protest fee is US$ 500. An administrative fee of US$ 100 will be deducted from this amount and the remaining amount will be refunded if the protest is upheld. If the protest is rejected, the entire fee will not be returned to the protester.

(iv) The Chairperson of the Competition Jury has the right to refuse the protest(s). In the case where the protest is accepted by the Chairperson of the Competition Jury, the evaluation shall be conducted only by members of the Competition Jury involved in the bout and immediately after the session is completed. The Chairperson of the Competition Jury shall inform the result of the evaluation and report to the Technical Delegate immediately.

The Technical Delegate will immediately inform both Team
Leaders verbally and thereafter in writing but no later than the Weigh-In and Medical Examination of the next day.

(v) A video recording of the protested bout(s) will be used to analyze the bout(s) in all AIBA Approved Events.

(vi) A protest during the Finals of a competition should be notified within 5 minutes of completion of the bout.

(vii) In the case of a protest during the Finals of a competition, the Award Ceremony will be postponed until the results of the evaluation are announced.

As Indian team haven’t filed the appeal with in 30 minutes, that effectively means Vijender singh is out of medals race.

The rules for scoring are very simple ::

During each round, a Judge shall assess the respective scores of each Boxer according to the number of scoring blows obtained. Each blow, to have a scoring value, must, without being blocked or guarded, land directly with the knuckle part of the closed glove of either hand on any part of the front or sides of the head or body above the belt.

Swings landing as above described are scoring blows.

The awarding of a point shall follow the principle of one point for every correct blow.

In case of any question or comment, feel free to drop in a comment.

Vibhu batra

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