NEW DELHI: During Tuesday’s felicitation of the four medallists from the World Championships by Boxing Federation of India and Sports Ministry officials at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi, bronze medallist MC Mary Kom did not look her usual happy self. It is not everyday that an Indian becomes the most successful boxer — man or woman — in the world.
When asked how she felt after becoming an eight-time Worlds medallist, the Manipur boxer said, “I’m very happy with my overall performance and it showed where I stand in 51kg category. I was in the best possible shape and I found the right balance as well. The way I played there, I deserved more,” she said.
Then came the inevitable question of how she felt after her 1-4 loss in the semifinals against Busenaz Cakiroglu of Turkey. “It was something new for me. Even laymen, without too much knowledge of boxing, could see where the bout was headed.
I was surprised and disappointed when the results were announced.” The Turkish pugilist was the second seed as well as reigning European Games gold winner.
Even chief national coach Ali Qamar had the same opinion and questioned AIBA’s rule change on the day of the semifinal bout. “They called for a managers/coaches meeting of all countries and said only bouts with 3-2 verdict can be challenged. So after Mary’s bout, the judges simply refused to hear us out. We were extremely confident of winning after the initial few rounds and even asked her to concentrate on defence during the last round,” he said.
The main positive, according to the 36-year-old was now she was aware of the competition that she will have to overcome if she is to fulfill her dream of bagging an Olympic medal. “To be honest, there are few better boxers obviously but my experience will come in handy against them. I now know for sure I can do better in Tokyo. My opening fight against Thailand’s Jutamas Jitpong was the toughest. She was very powerful and winning 5-0 by using a perfect in-ring strategy was quite memorable.”
However, the Padma Shri awardee did not seem too perturbed with thoughts of such a bias recurring during the Asia/Oceania qualification event in Wuhan (China) next February.
“AIBA is not conducting and instead International Olympic Committee (IOC) will be in-charge. So I don’t think such an incident will happen again. I was present during the meeting as athlete representative and I had suggested how transparency was needed or else the sport would suffer. So I’m hopeful certain steps will be taken to keep the sport free and fair.”
When asked to judge India’s overall performance in Russia and the future of the sport, Mary praised all the medal winners and asked others to not lose hope. “I was really impressed with most of the girls. They are young but full of heart and gave their best. So many youngsters won medals on their debut this time. Even those who did not win should not lose hope. They should work harder and I’m sure medals will follow soon enough.”