Published on December 02, 2005

Kaew falls to judges and Magliquian

Allegations of biased judging surfaced at the Southeast Asia Games boxing ring yesterday after Thailand’s defending pinweight champion Kaew Pongprayoon was outpointed by Juanito of the Philippines.

In other semi-finals bouts, Thailand’s other main hopefuls Olympic silver medallist Worapoj Petchkoom (featherweight) and Asian champion Somjit Jongjohor (flyweight) easily dismissed their rivals.

Somjit ended the host’s winning streak in Bacolod by outpointing Philippine challenger Warleto Parenas, while Worapoj knocked out Malaysia’s Eddey Kalai in the first round.

But Thailand was clearly upset by Keaw’s loss, the first dissension shown over a ring decision here.

“He boxed for four rounds and there were no points,” said Thai team manager Chavala Suvannachive of his boxer’s loss. “This is clear. This is not a fair contest.”

Yesterday, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered an investigation into allegations by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra that the host country was unfairly favouring its own competitors.

Magliquian won 37-25 to avenge his 2003 gold-medal bout loss, but the contest appeared far closer than that.

Thailand’s Cuban coach Jorge Hernandez smiled sarcastically and shook his head when the scoreboard failed to change when his fighter seemed to connect.

The 1.52-metre Magliquian felt differently, saying he was in command throughout.

“I felt in control,” he said. “His punches were just not coming through.”

In one of the drawcards of a 14-fight semi-final night, Somjit easily ended Parenas’ challenge.

Somjit bobbed and wove, drawing Parenas in close before using a number of hook combinations for points in all four rounds. The 2002 Busan Asian Games champion won 16-10.

“He’s a fighter, I’m a boxer,” said Somjit. “I knew he would charge me, so I’d side-step for 1-2 hook combinations.”

Kalai had stopped Keo Inta of Laos on Wednesday, and was expected to provide some resistance. There was none.

At 7-2 just seconds into the first round, Worapoj unleashed a wicked right to send Kalai down for the first time. A clean uppercut ended it just moments later.

“I’m waiting for the Philippine fighter in the final,” said Worapoj, who won a silver medal as a bantamweight at Athens.

He will meet Joegen Ladon in the gold medal round tomorrow.

Elsewhere, in the 64kg light welterweight class, defending champion Pichai Sayota won an RSC outscore (23-3) over Cao Van Trong of Vietnam in the second round, while middleweight Suriya Prasathinphimai knocked down his Indonesian opponent Bara Gommies twice in the first round before winning by an RSC outclass judge.

Thais get red card

nAt least two Thai aquatics officials have been sanctioned by the Fina, the international aquatics federation, for “shady judging”, Philippine Amateur Swimming Association president Mark Joseph said yesterday.

Joseph said one Thai judge was disciplined by the Fina neutral referee from New Zealand for “obviously favouring his own diver”.

In water polo, Joseph said, another Thai referee was banned from the deck because of “intentional bad calls and unfair player exclusions”.

He said the referee “destroyed the Vietnam team” and was not allowed to return to the deck by the Fina neutral delegate from Iran.

Joseph refused to name the two Thai referees.

Organizers said yesterday that random drug testing was being conducted at the Games, but would not divulge the number of athletes tested or if there had been any positive doping results.

“We are conducting random sampling – the process does not limit us to examine only winners,” said Games medical chairman Jose Raul Canlas. “Despite our limited budget, the process is in place.”

The Nation, Agencies

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