Russian wins controversial boxing heavyweight gold
OLYMPIC boxing was at the centre of a judging controversy after Russian Evgeny Tishchenko added Rio heavyweight gold to his world and European titles on Monday at the expense of Kazakhstan’s Vassiliy Levit.
Loud boos rang out in the crowd after the announcement that the judges had surprisingly given Tishchenko the win on an unanimous points decision when most believed Levit had taken the fight. But they reserved a ferocious cheer for Levit, 28, who wiped tears from his eyes as he accepted his silver. More boos followed when Tishchenko collected the gold medal. A gracious Levit beckoned to the crowd to give his Russian opponent a more respect ful reception and the Kazakh said afterwards: “I came for gold but at the last step failed so I didn’t fulfi l the programme 100 per cent, but that’s life.”
“Every fighter that comes out of the ring deserves respect,” he added, asked why he had pleaded Tishchenko’s case to the enraged 9,000-seat arena.
“In my head I thought I had won and the coaches were quite happy with me and told me I did everything in the programme for the fight, but you saw how it ended up.”
Tishchenko, the 25- year- old with piercing eyes, said last week that his build-up to the Games had been hampered by the uncertainty caused by Russia’s doping scandal, which meant he only knew for sure that he would be competing days before the Olympics.
And he was hardly gleeful after winning gold, quickly getting tired of questions from reporters about whether he thought he had won the bout and the jeers that greeted the decision and him.
“It is really a pity that the stands reacted like that but maybe from the side it looked different from another angle,” Tishchenko said, admitting he was particularly disappointed to get booed on the podium.
“I am really upset about this because I respect my opponent and the crowd, but I don’t know why they booed in that outrageous way. But if the judges gave me the win, they had reasons for it.” — AFP