KARACHI, May 10: Strong protest by Iran and Syria marred the third Olympic qualifying boxing tournament while Pakistan's Ahmad Ali Khan and Faisal Kareem reached the semifinals after questionable decisions on Monday.
Iranian officials shouted and protested soon after middleweight Ahmad was declared a 30-11 winner against Iran's Mehdi Ghorbani at KPT Sports Complex. "Our boxer was the winner. He dominated the Pakistani boxer. But we are surprised why Pakistani has been declared winner.
"We will lodge an official protest through Iran Boxing Federation president Nouri Nathegh," Iran chief coach Nohroudi Hossein said after the bout while the Iranian officials kept on shouting in presence of International Boxing Association (AIBA) president Anwar Chowdhry.
Chairman jury Maj Abdul Rasheed, however, avoided from getting involved in the controversy, saying technical delegate Shakeel Durrani was the authority to receive protest.
"Please do not involve me in this. Shakeel Durrani is the technical delegate and has the authority to receive protest," Rasheed said when asked whether he had received a protest.
Shakeel said he had not received any complaint from the Iranian officials adding that an official protest should be submitted within half an hour after the bout. "The protest should be submitted within half an hour after the fight so there is no protest," he said when contacted almost 45 minutes after the fight.
The lanky Ahmad was not as impressive and confident as he was in the pre-quarterfinals against Tajikistan's Khaidov Akmal and started the bout cautiously. Ahmad, though scored few points, fell on the ropes after a vicious left from Ghorbani in the second round.
It was then that Ahmad lost his confidence and again hung over the ropes when he received a powerful right in the third round. As Iranian boxer dominated Ahmad, the home pugilist was hapless and found it difficult to save himself from severe thrashing from the rival. Lightning left, right combination and stinging jabs helped Ghorbani completely prevail over the local boxer in the fourth round.
Interestingly, according to points break-up, Ahmad led the first and second rounds 11-4, 5-1. The Pakistani again led the third round 8-4 and fourth round 6-2. Light-welterweight Faisal was declared 43-32 winner against China's Bai Bingbing, although it did not seem to be a high-scoring fight.
After a cautious first and second round that hardly saw any action, Faisal scored several points, but the Chinese dominated the third round delivering point winning punches. Bingbing, having better reach, came all out against the Pakistani, scoring most of the points in the final round.
However, Faisal led the first round 10-8 and second 12-9. The Chinese trailed 8-15 in the third round and led the final round 7- 6, according to break-up. An ugly scene was created when Syrian featherweight Yaser Shighan left the ring in rage contemptously throwing a five-dollar bill towards Turkmenistan referee Noor Mohammad after Pakistan's Sohail Baloch won the fight on a RSC/OS decision in the third round.
A furious Syrian coach strongly protested to the jury and the referees sitting in the boxing hall and later charged the referee and judges with bias. "The referee and judges are a mafia. If we had power, money and a top position in boxing world, our boxer would have been declared winner.
There is no justice in amateur boxing. You will write all this but nothing positive will happen," he told reporters after the fight. Although Sohail was cautious and was contained by Shighan in the first round, he was better in the second and third rounds and totally outclassed the Syrian with power punches before the bout was stopped in the third round.
Referee Noor cautioned Sohail twice for lowering his head who reached the last four. Welterweight Nisar Khan was the sole Pakistani to crash out of the competition after Kazakhstan's Artayev Bakhtiyar hammered him to emerge winner after the bout was stopped following continuous count limit (CCL) in the third round.
After missing the target most of the time in the opening round, Nisar took a severe beating from the Kazakh in the second round. Bakhtiyar stepped up pressure and inflicted further punishment on the Pakistani in the third round which forced the referee to stop the fight to wipe off Nisar's bloody nose.
A series of swinging blows from the Kazakh prompted the referee to give Nisar eight counts thrice before stopping the one-sided bout. Surprisingly, points break-up said Nisar led 17-4 in the first and trailed 13-14 in the second round, while the Kazakh was leading the third round 9-4 before the bout was stopped.
Results (quarterfinals):
Flyweight: Badar Uugan (Mongolia) bt Liu Slick Jung (Chinese Taipei) RSC/OS/II; Rakhim Zahnov (Kazakhstan) bt Zou Gang (China) 33-13; Kaoru Murahashi (Japan) bt Mojtaba Farajieraei (Iran) 24- 17; B. Yusak Saweho (Indonesia) bt Huday Berdiyev (Turkmenistan) 30-16.
Featherweight: Asylbex Talasbaev (Kyrgyzstan) bt Urias Arenaldo Moniaga (Indonesia) 19-16; Meretniyazov I (Turkmenistan) bt Muhammad Aljareri (Jordan) 31-16; Sohail Baloch (Pkaistan) bt Yaser Shighan (Syria) RSC/OS/III; Terukado Shoyama (Japan) RSC/injured/III.
Light-welterweight: Vijender (India) bt Alhadi Abdul Rahman (Qatar) 35-9; Morteza Sepahvandi (Iran) bt Aby-Tilebezdi (Kyrgyzstan) 25-10; Faisal Kareem (Pakistan) bt Bai Bingbing (China) 43-32; Yang Hyun Tae (South Korea) bt Abdallah Hawawreh (Jordan) 23-5.
Welterweight: R. Feros Christoper (Indonesia) bt Ayman Awad (Jordan) 27-26; S. Karimi Ahmedabad (Iran) bt Nawaf Mohd Noor (Qatar) 32-12; Artayev Bakhtiyar (Kazakhstan) bt Nisar Khan (Pakistan) RSC/CCL/III; Manon Boo njumnong (Thailand) bt Zuhair Kh. Jabbar (Iraq) 28-7.
Middleweight: Koji Satou (Japan) bt Haji Al Toor (Qatar) RSC/OS/III; Suriya Pasathi Nphimai (Thailand) bt Khaled (Kuwait) RSC/OS/II; Cho Deok Jin (South Korea) bt Jamal Ali Layej (Iraq) RSC/OS/III; Ahmad Ali Khan (Pakistan) bt Mehdi Ghorbani (Iran) 30-11.