Indian women referees create history at football semis
Kolkata: Indian women referees created history at the Asian Games when Maria Rebello Piedade and Uvena Fernandes officiated in the Women’s Semifinal match between Women’s World Champions Japan and Vietnam in Incheon. In fact, this is the first-ever instance when any Indian referee has officiated in a match featuring a current World Champion side. While Maria was in charge in the middle, Uvena was on service as an assistant referee, AIFF sources said here today. For the record, both Maria and Uvena, each officiated in three matches in Incheon. Apart from the two girls, Magho Singh and A Rowan also officiated in Incheon. In a Country where not every Woman prefer to play the Sport, getting acceptance as a Woman Referee is not easy. Maria, who was the first-ever Woman Referee in the World to ever supervise a Premier League match of any Country, feels she is a “much confident” Referee now. (PTI)
Sarita robbed of wining Gold
IncheoN: Controversy hit the Asian Games boxing competition after India’s L Sarita Devi (60kg) had to settle for a bronze medal despite dominating her semifinal bout even as M C Mary Kom (51kg) continued her winning run to enter the summit clash of the mega-event here on Tueday.The Indian woman boxer in fray, Pooja Rani (75kg), also had to settle for a bronze after losing a closely-contested semifinal bout to China’s Li Qian. But what triggered massive outrage was Sarita’s loss which left the Manipuri in tears. Up against home favourite Jina Park, Sarita, the Commonwealth Games silver-medallist, went down 0-3 despite clearly being the better boxer. Sarita simply pummelled her rival with her flurry of quicksilver blows — at times raining four to her rival’s one. But shockingly, Park was not given a single standing count by the Algerian referee Hammadi Yakoub Kheira despite looking rocked back by Sarita’s blows to her chin. In the end, all three ringside judges ruled in favour of the Korean by identical 39-37 margins. The ringside judges were Braham Mohamad of Tunisia, Albino Foti of Italy and Mariusz Josef Gorny of Poland. Immediately after the bout, a tearful Sarita broke down while talking to journalists. “All my hard work has come to nought. It has happened to me but kindly see that this kind of injustice is not meted out to anyone else in the competition. I request you,” she said tearfully with folded hands. “If they wanted to award the bout to her, then why allow us to fight in the first place,” she added. India’s long-time Cuban coach B I Fernandez also called it a clear case of cheating, but said no purpose would be served by lodging a protest that will cost the Indian contingent USD 500 and will be forfeited if the appeal was lost. “There is no point. It was pre-decided, the 3-0 verdict is a clear cut indication. “Sarita was a clear-cut winner but money has talked here and the judges deserve to be thrown out. (PTI)
Iraqi weightlifter caught doping
Incheon: An Iraqi weightlifter has failed a dope test for the second time in six years and was kicked out of the Asian Games on Tuesday, officials said. Mohammed al Aifuri, who came seventh in the men’s super-heavyweight +105kg category at the Asiad, was the second test failure announced Tuesday and the fourth since the start of the 15-day Games. The OCA said a test taken on September 14, before the start of the Games, detected anabolic steroids etiocholanolone and androsterone, which are banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Earlier today, a wushu gold medallist from Malaysia was announced as having tested positive for a stimulant. A Tajikistan footballer and a soft tennis player from Cambodia have also failed tests and been excluded. The other three cases involved stimulants. The 32-year-old Aifuri was also banned by the IWF in 2008 for taking metandienone, another banned steroid. Weightlifting was once notorious for drug-taking to boost performance, but it has cut the number of failed tests in recent years. (PTI)