Controversy hit the Asian Games boxing competition after India’s L Sarita Devi (60kg) had to settle for a bronze medal despite dominating her semi-final bout even as M C Mary Kom (51kg) continued her winning run to enter the summit clash of the mega-event here on Tuesday.
The other Indian woman boxer in fray, Pooja Rani (75kg), also had to settle for a bronze after losing a closely-contested semi-final bout to China’s Li Qian.
But what triggered massive outrage was Sarita’s loss which left the Manipuri in tears. Up against home favourite Jina Park, Sarita went down 0-3 despite clearly being the better boxer. In what came as further disappointment for the Indian boxing contingent, its protest against Sarita’s loss was rejected by the International Boxing Association’s technical committee.
Prior to the action-charged and scandalous bout, India’s best medal hope and former five-time world champion M C Mary Kom scored a convincing 3-0 victory over her Vietnamese opponent Ler Thi Bang.
Mary was a clear winner even though she was the shorter of the two southpaws.
