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"Unfair decisions finish your hard work of so many years in a few seconds" - Sarita Devi lashes out at scoring system after Nishant Dev's QF loss

Former world champion Laishram Sarita Devi expressed her anguish and lashed out against the scoring system after India’s Nishant Dev lost to second-seeded Mexican Marco Alvarez Verde in the men’s 71kg quarterfinal bout at the Paris Games on Saturday (August 3). Nishant suffered a close 1:4 split decision defeat to the Mexican, leaving Indian fans disappointed.

On Sunday, Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Lovlina Borgohain too lost by a similar margin to China’s Li Qian in the women’s 75kg quarterfinal, thereby ending Indian boxers’ campaign in Paris.

Blame it on the tough draws or performance but that’s the harsh reality. The eighth-seed Lovlina lost the bout by a 4:1 split decision to Li Qian, the reigning Asian Games champion. Lovlina had booked her Paris 2024 berth by reaching the women’s 75kg final at the Asian Games last year. Once again, it was Li Qian who defeated her in the final in Hangzhou.

Sarita Devi stunned by Nishant’s ouster

Late on Saturday night, the judges’ decision to award a 4-1 verdict to Verde in the men’s 71kg quarterfinal despite a dominating performance from World Championship bronze medalist Nishant Dev of India left the 2014 Asian Games bronze medalist Sarita Devi dejected.

Devi lashed out at the judges, terming it as an “unfair” decision.

“Nishant was much better than the Mexican in all three rounds. It boils my blood seeing unfair decisions in sports. It finishes your hard work for so many years in a few seconds,” Devi told Sportskeeda.

Devi also questioned the referee in the ring for failing to warn the Mexican for holding.

“It baffles me to see the referees didn’t warn the Mexican boxer after so much holding. This bout was dominated by Nishant, but the decision went in favor of the opponent, how long will this continue?” she continued.
“I couldn’t control my emotions, I’m attached to the sport for more than two decades now. It’s sad that such things still persists in the sport. I feel for the boxer, and as a result of that decision we lost a medal. But the decision has now been made, we have to live with that and hope for a better effort in the next edition,” she added.

During her playing career, Sarita has been a victim of unfair judgement in the infamous loss to her South Korean opponent Park Ji-Na at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon. At the medal ceremony, she had refused to accept the bronze medal in protest against the biased judging. However, she accepted the medal later. This was followed by a one-year ban on her.

A decade later, Sarita is yet to come to terms with the scoring system in her sport, and said that she is still in favor of the traditional system under which a boxer got a point if his punch touched the opponent’s face.

In what turned out to be an underwhelming campaign for Indian boxers, four of the six pugilists at the Paris Games even failed to reach the quarterfinals.

Two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen made a Round-of-16 exit after losing to reigning Asian Games gold medalist Wu Yu of China in women’s 50kg. Both Zareen and Borgohain, India’s best medal prospects, faced tough draws. Zareen was unseeded, while Borgohain, the only seeded Indian, had switched her weight category from 69kg in Tokyo to 75kg for Paris.

Earlier on Tuesday, half of India’s boxing contingent were shown the door after losing their respective bouts. Jasmine Lamboria faced a first-round exit against Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines in the women’s 57kg Round of 32.

Reigning Commonwealth Games champion Amit Panghal, who secured a late qualification in the last qualifiers in Bangkok, faced a 1:4 split decision loss to the 2022 Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Patrick Chinyemba of Zambia in the men’s 51kg Round of 16.

Asian Games bronze medalist Preeti Pawar lost to World Championship silver medalist Yeni Arias of Colombia in the women’s 54kg Round of 16.

India has previously secured three bronze medals in Olympic boxing: Vijender Singh in Beijing 2008, Mary Kom in London 2012, and Lovlina Borgohain in Tokyo 2020.

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