Shillong: There was high drama before the women’s boxing finals in the 12th South Asian Games on Tuesday after AIBA-appointed ad-hoc committee officials threatened to pull out claiming “delay in payment” by the organising committee here.
The bouts were delayed by 40 minutes after officials claimed that they have not been paid their allowance while the organisers insisted that they were being blackmailed for higher payment.
“They were trying to blackmail us to increase the daily allowance for the ITOs (technical officials). We had fixed it at USD 50 per day but they wanted more and pressurised us, this being the last day. Thankfully good sense prevailed on both sides and the matter was resolved,” R K Sharma, CEO- Shillong Organising Committee told PTI.
Boxing in India is being administered by an ad-hoc committee of the International Boxing Association (AIBA, which is conducting the sport in the regional mega-event.
On the concluding day, the officials, including judges and technical officials numbering about 14, refused to turn up citing “payment issues”.
Frantic calls to “settle the money” were made openly in the boxing arena in presence of Indian Olympic Association joint-secretary Rakesh Gupta. (PTI)
