It was wise of AIBA to wait until after the damage had already been done to realise that some judges may not quite be capable of doing their jobs correctly.
On Wednesday morning, it was confirmed that Olympic boxing’s governing body had sent home a number of judges whose “decisions were not at the level expected,” during Rio 2016.
While no judges were named in AIBA’s statement, many worked out that they were likely those involved in the scoring of some of the more contentious decisions at the Games in Brazil.
Boxing judges removed from Rio Olympics due to disputed results, AIBA announce https://t.co/eYQ7zAE8u8
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) August 17, 2016
Katie Taylor’s loss was questionable but defendable from a judges’ point of view while Evgeny Tishchenko’s heavyweight gold medal victory over Kazakhstan’s Vassiliy Levit was nothing short of baffling.
Another decision that had fans scratching their heads was Michael Conlan’s quarter-final defeat in the men’s bantamweight division to Russia’s Vladimir Nikitin on Tuesday.
Conlan clearly deserved the nod but fell short to some shocking judging and the Belfast boxer raised a very good question upon learning of the judges’ dismissal from Rio 2016.
Wow this says a lot about AIBA, Sending judges home who ruin dreams, what happens 2 the ppl who's dream were ruined? https://t.co/n5VnWRzLJa
— Michael Conlan (@mickconlan11) August 17, 2016
We look forward to AIBA’s response.
On the latest episode of the GAA Hour Hurling Show Wooly and the lads reflect on a monumental weekend of action. Listen below or subscribe here on iTunes
