Olympic setback: Cornered Waseem blames refs
Pakistan boxer says bias, poor decision cost him a London ticket.
KARACHI:
Pakistan boxer Mohammad Waseem has blamed the referees for his loss in the Asian round of the Olympic qualifiers that shattered his chances of confirming a seat for the London event this year.
Waseem, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist, went down 22-9 to Tugstsogt Nyambayar in the 52-kilogramme quarter-final bout with referees ruling 5-2, 9-3, 8-4 in favour of the Mongolian. Waseem needed to win to seal his place in the Olympics and rued his luck-less campaign.
“The score doesn’t reflect what happened,” Waseem told The Express Tribune after the boxing contingent returned from Astana, Kazakhstan yesterday. “It was a close fight and I was robbed of points. I was helpless. I’ve even brought the footage of my fight. It seemed I was fighting more than just one opponent.”
Waseem also rued a tough draw, which he thought played a huge role in his ouster and added that a late arrival in Astana also hampered his chances. “
After our arrival we found out that the weight-checking session will take place in two hours.”
‘Government takes no interest’
Waseem’s sentiments were echoed by coach Majeed Brohi who said that refereeing errors led to the exit of Pakistan’s main hope in the event.
“The refereeing was very poor and went against him on several occasions,” said Brohi. “But I appreciate that all our boxers went down after putting up a brave fight. As coaches, we want commitment and we got that.”
Brohi also laid blame on the government for its failure to encourage and support boxing — the only sport besides hockey to have realistic chances of making it to the Olympics without a wildcard. The coach added that the last-minute arrival in the city and a delay in setting up a training camp were also reasons for Pakistan’s poor campaign.
“Even the best coach couldn’t have produced results because the boys didn’t have the feel of Astana. All other teams were there a month prior to the event but we missed out. Otherwise at least two of our boxers would have made it to London. Now we’ll have to wait for four more years before we can get a chance again.”
‘Sack Akram Khan’
Hussain Shah, the only Pakistan boxer to win an Olympic medal, wants changes.
Shah said that the Pakistan Boxing Federation Secretary Akram Khan needed to be ‘shown the door’ since he lacked the knowledge to take the sport forward.
“I don’t see Pakistan boxers doing well even in the South Asian Games as India has taken a big lead over us,” said Shah, who won the bronze medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and is now settled in Japan where he is training their national boxers. “Our boxers are not sent anywhere, while Indian pugilists have been provided the best facilities, coaches and are sent on foreign training camps which help a lot.”
M Waseem
“I was helpless and couldn’t do anything against the refereeing. I’ve even brought the footage of my fight and you can tell how unlucky I was. It seemed like I was fighting more than just the one opponent.”
Hussain Shah
“I don’t see Pakistan boxers doing well in even the South Asian Games as India has taken a big lead over us. Our boxers are not sent anywhere, while Indian pugilists have been provided the best facilities.”
Published in The Express Tribune, April 14th, 2012.
Pakistan boxer Mohammad Waseem has blamed the referees for his loss in the Asian round of the Olympic qualifiers that shattered his chances of confirming a seat for the London event this year.
Waseem, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist, went down 22-9 to Tugstsogt Nyambayar in the 52-kilogramme quarter-final bout with referees ruling 5-2, 9-3, 8-4 in favour of the Mongolian. Waseem needed to win to seal his place in the Olympics and rued his luck-less campaign.
“The score doesn’t reflect what happened,” Waseem told The Express Tribune after the boxing contingent returned from Astana, Kazakhstan yesterday. “It was a close fight and I was robbed of points. I was helpless. I’ve even brought the footage of my fight. It seemed I was fighting more than just one opponent.”
Waseem also rued a tough draw, which he thought played a huge role in his ouster and added that a late arrival in Astana also hampered his chances. “
After our arrival we found out that the weight-checking session will take place in two hours.”
‘Government takes no interest’
Waseem’s sentiments were echoed by coach Majeed Brohi who said that refereeing errors led to the exit of Pakistan’s main hope in the event.
“The refereeing was very poor and went against him on several occasions,” said Brohi. “But I appreciate that all our boxers went down after putting up a brave fight. As coaches, we want commitment and we got that.”
Brohi also laid blame on the government for its failure to encourage and support boxing — the only sport besides hockey to have realistic chances of making it to the Olympics without a wildcard. The coach added that the last-minute arrival in the city and a delay in setting up a training camp were also reasons for Pakistan’s poor campaign.
“Even the best coach couldn’t have produced results because the boys didn’t have the feel of Astana. All other teams were there a month prior to the event but we missed out. Otherwise at least two of our boxers would have made it to London. Now we’ll have to wait for four more years before we can get a chance again.”
‘Sack Akram Khan’
Hussain Shah, the only Pakistan boxer to win an Olympic medal, wants changes.
Shah said that the Pakistan Boxing Federation Secretary Akram Khan needed to be ‘shown the door’ since he lacked the knowledge to take the sport forward.
“I don’t see Pakistan boxers doing well even in the South Asian Games as India has taken a big lead over us,” said Shah, who won the bronze medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and is now settled in Japan where he is training their national boxers. “Our boxers are not sent anywhere, while Indian pugilists have been provided the best facilities, coaches and are sent on foreign training camps which help a lot.”
M Waseem
“I was helpless and couldn’t do anything against the refereeing. I’ve even brought the footage of my fight and you can tell how unlucky I was. It seemed like I was fighting more than just the one opponent.”
Hussain Shah
“I don’t see Pakistan boxers doing well in even the South Asian Games as India has taken a big lead over us. Our boxers are not sent anywhere, while Indian pugilists have been provided the best facilities.”
Published in The Express Tribune, April 14th, 2012.