MY OLYMPIC PHILATELY

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Shame on America : Is this Olympic Spirit??????????

In a stunning reversal of fortunes, Indian boxer Vikas Krishan (69kg) was on Saturday ousted from the Olympics after the International Boxing Association (AIBA) overturned the result of his pre-quarterfinal bout, that he had won, following a review.

The 20-year-old had won 13-11 over Errol Spence in a thrilling contest on Friday night but following an appeal by his rival's team management, the AIBA awarded the bout 15-13 to the American.

"There were a total of nine (9) holding fouls committed by the Indian boxer in the third round alone. However the Referee only gave one caution," the AIBA said in a statement after a review by its Competition Jury.
"In the second round, at the time 02:38, the boxer from India spitted out his gumshield intentionally. However the Referee didn't give any warning," it added.

Based on these "findings", the jury members "unanimously" decided to award Spence four points, thereby making him the winner.

"Based on the AIBA Technical & Competition Rules 12.1.9, the Referee should have given at least two (2) warnings to the Indian boxer.”

“Although the boxer from India intentionally spitted out his gumshield, the Referee's view was blocked by the boxer from the USA and was not able to see the action," it international body said.

"...at least four points should have been awarded to the boxer from the USA. Therefore the final score should be 13:15 in favour of the USA. The protest is accepted and the winner of Bout 142 is Errol Spence (USA)," the AIBA statement added.

Vikas, only the second Indian boxer after Vijender to fetch a bronze medal in the World Championship, was among the biggest medal prospects for the country.

Earlier, India were at the wrong end of the AIBA review system when the country's appeal against the close opening-round loss of Sumit Sangwan (81kg) was rejected by the world body's competition jury.

Boxing at the ongoing Olympics has been marred by several controversies with AIBA's scoring system coming under severe criticism.

Two judges have been suspended so far after protests by participating teams.

Meanwhile, Spence has moved into the quarterfinals to face Russia's Andrey Zamkovoy on Tuesday.

Vijay Kumar Wins Silver Medal in London 2012

London: Army sharpshooter Vijay Kumar on Friday fought a nerve-wracking battle with five other top marksmen to clinch the silver medal in the men’s 25m rapidfire pistol event at the Olympic Games in London.
Kumar beat back the challenge of world champion Alexei Klimov of Russia, the Chinese duo of Ding Feng and Zhang Jian, and German Christian Reitz in the 40-shot final to finish runner-up behind Cuba’s Leuris Pupo, who shot his way to the gold with a world record equalling score of 34.

The 26-year-old army subedar from Himachal Pradesh found the target 30 times out of 40 attempts in the series comprising eight rounds of five shots each.

This is India’s second medal in the current Olympics after fellow marksman Gagan Narang’s bronze in the 10m air rifle event on 30 July. This was also the country’s fourth medal in shooting in Olympic history.
The other medal winners are Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (silver in 2004 Athens) and Abhinav Bindra (gold in 2008 Beijing).
Kumar started with a bang, hitting the target all five times, and kept himself in the hunt for a medal by consistently finding the target.
After a perfect five out of five at the start, Kumar, a double gold medallist at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, found the target four times in the second and third series, but missed it twice in the fourth.
He came back strongly by finding the target four times in the next three rounds and assured himself of a silver. In the last round, after Pupo shot four to clinch the gold, Kumar seemed to relax a bit and missed three targets.
The bronze medal was won by Feng with a tally of 27.