Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 13 (IANS) Terming as “unfair” the referee’s decision to penalise him with points, India’s Olympic bronze medallist boxer Vijender Singh Wednesday said the Indian Boxing Federation reacted late in registering its protest.

Vijender, a gold medal hope, lost 3-4 to English boxer Anthony Ogogo in the semi-final of the 75kg Monday and had to be content with a bronze medal.

The Indian team management had lodged a protest saying that the penalty points against Vijender were unfair, but the jury turned down the appeal.

“It was unfair even he (Ogogo) did a foul but referee did not take note of that. Earlier, Dinesh Singh and Manpreet Singh were also punished similarly, but the boxing federation did not register protest.”

“I asked the Boxing Federation to register the complain, but the officials did not react in time. Had the protest been registered in time, the referees would not have repeated the mistake,” he said.

When asked what is needed to be done so that such things don’t occur in future, Vijender said: “It is for the federation to think. It should not happen with any boxer as we put in so much of effort to win a bout and its disheartening that we lose out for technical reasons. I never thought that I will lose this way.”

“According to the rules, a referee cannot give a warning 30 seconds before the end of the bout and I got a warning 14 seconds before the bout ended,” he said.

Vijender said he is ready to forget what happened in the Games and is looking forward to the Asian Games in China next month and London Olympics in 2012.

“If I protest more, they will say I lack sportsmanship. Whatever happened has happened These things will keep happening and everytime you cannot win gold. I have learnt from my mistakes. I have already started practising for Asian Games and London Olympics.”