Canadian loses bout she was sure she won
Kasakh fighter declared winner
They can change RIO DE JANEIRO the scoring in Olympic boxing, they can change the judging criteria, they can even change the entire system that determines a winner.
But it just wouldn’t be an Olympic tournament unless a disproportionate number of the bouts ended in controversy and Canada’s Ariane Fortin is just the latest fighter to experience that painful reality.
Sunday afternoon, Fortin appeared to win three of the four rounds over Kazakhstan’s Dariga Shakimova in their opening-round 75-kilogram bout. That’s at least the way the Quebec City fighter and her coaches saw it. So did judge Hassan Moudrikah from Morocco.
The other two judges, however, saw a different fight. Evangelos Bougioukas of Greece had it 3-1 for Shakimova while Denmark’s Claus Bedemann had the fight even but gave his decision to Shakimova.
Five judges score each fight before the computer selects the three who will count. The other two scorecards aren’t made available to the public.
This year, the Olympics have also gone to the 10-point must scoring system, meaning the winner of a round is awarded 10 points.
“In my mind it was clear we won three of the four rounds,” Daniel Trepanier, the Canadian boxing team’s leader said. “In the corner we really thought we won the fight, especially with what Ariane did in the last round. She was busier. She was more precise ... But the judges saw that fight differently.”