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They say her career is over; Sports minister, IOA vow to fight for Sarita Devi

On the eve AIBA officials says they bring down the curtains on Sarita Devi's boxing days as punishment for her protest during Asian Games in September

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With the news coming in from Jeju Islands (South Korea), where the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) is holding its World Congress, that the Indian boxer Laishram Sarita Devi's career may be over for showing dissent during Asian Games in Incheon, sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal said that the government would continue to fight for her.

Terming the AIBA's president CK Wu's statement that 'Sarita's international career may be over', Sonowal termed it as "unfortunate" and "too harsh" on the athlete.

"I am really hurt and shocked by what AIBA president has said. Hearing his comment, I would like to say that the whole ministry is behind Sarita. I have instructed the DG SAI (Jiji Thomson) to take up the matter with the Boxing India at the earliest. We want Sarita to get justice. Our government will continue to fight for her and we ensure full support to the boxer," said Sonowal.

Even the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) secretary general Rajeev Mehta has vowed to take the matter to Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

"Let the decision come. We (IOA) will certainly talk to sports ministry first before challenging the verdict in CAS," Mehta told dna on Wednesday.

Sonowal said that the AIBA should have accepted the written apology of Sarita as her emotional outburst at the podium was not pre-planned.

"Sarita has already given a written apology to the AIBA and the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has already accepted it. The AIBA should also let her off and forgive her. This written apology is sufficient. Her outburst was not pre-planned and I think the AIBA's decision is too harsh," he said.

Sarita lost in the semifinals to to South Korea's Jina Park in the women's lightweight competition at Incheon, South Korea, in September. Sarita believed the decision was unfair and had put her bronze medal around Park's neck at the presentation ceremony as a protest.

AIBA later suspended Sarita and four Indian officials — coaches GS Sandhu, BI Fernandez, Sagar Mal Dhayal and chef-de-mission of the Indian contingent Adile Sumariwalla at the medal ceremony.

Sarita later apologised twice, first before leaving Incheon and then on to Boxing India, but AIBA president has refused to accept it and pointed out that her behaviour as unacceptable. The four-member disciplinary committee — comprising members from Switzerland, US, Spain and England — is expected to submit its report on Sarita during the two-day AIBA congress starting on Thursday.

"She will be heavily punished, there will be zero tolerance. It was totally unacceptable behaviour for any competition in any sport, I think her boxing career is finished. Every athlete should fully respect the decisions of referees and judges. So this boxer is facing very severe punishment. She has damaged her own country, India has been damaged," Wu said on the eve of AIBA congress in Jeju.

Upset about the decision in the 60-kg bout, Sarita had refused to bow for the bronze medal be placed around her neck. She then took kg the medal and put it onto Park's neck, who had been declared the winner of their semifinal bout.

The South Korean boxer, an eventual silver medallist, tried to give the bronze medal back to Sarita, and then left it on the podium.

AIBA president talked tough on the eve of congress. "If you accept being the winner, you have to accept being the loser. If everyone behaved like that, what type of competition will we have?" Wu asked.

He added that controversies over scoring at the Asian Games and allegations of impropriety were possibly caused by a misunderstanding of the new scoring system and heightened measures to prevent influencing of judges.

The new scoring method is a 10-points system like that used in professional boxing, rather than the previous method of counting scoring blows. Judges are now randomly selected from a pool of officials just prior to each bout. And while there are five judges for each bout, only three of the scorecards are randomly chosen by computer to contribute to the result.

"This prevents any possible manipulation because you don't know who are (going to be) the judges," Wu added.

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