While India apologises, Mongolia escalates protests against boxing officiating

Mongolia will escalate its complaints about the officiating in boxing at the Asian Games, its chef de mission said on Saturday. “Our national Olympic body has decided to write a protest letter to AIBA explaining the details of the contentious bout,” Badmaanyuambuu Bat-Erdene told reporters. “We’ll also take up the matter at future meetings of the world body and tell them that something is wrong with the rules.” Bat-Erdene said his team felt cheated in the men’s 55-kilogram category when Tugstsogt Nyambayar lost his semifinal on points to Ham Sang-Myeong of host nation South Korea on Tuesday. [caption id=“attachment_1742745” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  India’s L. Sarita Devi cries after she refused her bronze medal during the medal ceremony. AP[/caption] Mongolia made a brief sit-in protest and also complained officially. “We were shocked by that decision and had made our point very clear. Boxing is an important sport for us and so is every medal,” he added. India too had protested officially against a result the same day when L. Sarita Devi lost to another South Korean, Park Ji-na, in the women’s 60-kilogram semifinal. Both protests were rejected by the AIBA’s technical committee since rules do not allow any protests against the jury though teams can object to decisions by the referee. Bat-Erdene said he was concerned about India’s issue too. “I’m happy that India protested and hope that countries who felt the jury was biased during the Asian Games, should also approach the AIBA for this,” he added. Sarita had created a furor the following day as she refused to receive the medal. In protest at what she called “biased judgment” for her semifinals loss in the women’s 60-kilogram class, a tearful Sarita went to the podium but refused to bend down to let the medal be placed over her neck. She took the medal in hand, went across, and slipped it onto Park’s neck. Park tried to give it back, then left it on the podium. However, Sarita tendered an “unconditional apology” after AIBA said it was opening disciplinary proceedings against her. AP