COMMONWEALTH GAMES/BOXING: David Agong, the judge suspended for making "political decisions" during a first-round bout in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, was reinstated and was back officiating yesterday. The short-lived controversy and the harsh words on all sides proved yet again that at this level the actual boxing often provides only half the story and the drama, with the judges under just as much close scrutiny as the fighters.
The Australian men's 4000-metre pursuit team on route to setting a new world record as they clinched gold by beating England in the final at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
On Tuesday, Professor Anwar Chowdhry, president of the Amateur International Boxing Association, said he was unhappy with the standard of judging and that he planned to meet officials personally to tell them what he expects.
Agong, a Ugandan, was banned indefinitely by the Pakistani Chowdhry for his scoring in the light-middleweight bout in which Kevin Anderson of Scotland beat Pakistan's Ashgar Ali Shah, even though his scores tallied with three of the other four officials. Agong later declared his reputation was in tatters and that he would pursue legal action against Chowdhry if he did not apologise.
Yesterday, the reinstated Agong said: "Dr Chowdhry saw me this morning and told me to continue as normal. He still did not tell me what I had done wrong or why I had been suspended, or what was the political decision. But now my reputation is intact again."
Agong had reacted angrily to Chowdhry's charges of "political decisions" and pointed out that four of the five judges had favoured Anderson.
He said: "I do not know what he means by political decisions. Uganda has no problems with Pakistan and I've never been to Scotland. Dr Chowdhry owes me an apology."
It was not an isolated row over judging. England's Paul Smith had ensured a medal on Wednesday with a victory over Thomas Awimbono. The score was 21-17 but many observers were loudly heard wondering where the points had come from and pointed out that full body shots from Awimbono were not counting.
That result left the officials from Ghana fuming and Awimbono refusing to shake Smith's hand. That was ironic given that Stephen Antwi, a referee from Ghana, was another suspended by Chowdhry, in his case for two days.
The current scoring system was designed to eliminate the sort of judging decisions that became notorious in the 1984 and 1988 Olympics. The system awards a boxer a point when three of the judges press a button, to signify seeing a punch landed, within a second of each other.
This works fine when boxers are throwing big punches but means that often a combination of punches can be missed because of the angles - one judge can see a punch but two others may see nothing. And in the speed of the action it is possible for judges to score different punches. One judge said that officials feel under pressure to score the bouts high.
Yesterday, Smith, the first of seven Englishman fighting for a place in the finals, scraped through by 20-19 against the Scot Craig McEwan. David Dolan and Darren Barker also won their semi-finals.Dolan's bout with Kevin Evans was stopped with the Welshman 7-2 up.
