Mary Kom celebrates after winning the gold medal.

Mary and Sarita, sharing a room at the Games Village, were happy to be with each other on this evening of sadness and anticipation. They knew Mary would have to work very hard against the Kazakh girl, but were relieved that Mary’s opponent was not Korean.

Mary wins

The 24-year-old Kazakh girl looked strong at the start, and the Indian star took some punishment despite trying to be more aggressive; the three judges gave the first round to Shekerbekova.

In the second round, the two were cagey and watchful, Mary trying to score with her right jab, trying to land straight punches. Shekerbekova tried to hit and run, hit and run, but she lost the round. In the third, 30 seconds into the fight, Mary landed a left and then a right; they fought wildly and they clinched again; with 20 seconds left, Mary hit Shekerbekova with a stinging right. Mary managed to hit and move away swiftly, and it was clear this round was hers.

There were cries of “Mary, Mary Mary” and “Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan” in the semi-filled arena; Mary took some punishment in the fourth round, but she dished it out more – she landed a big right early, and another at the 60 second mark, and rounded it up with a strong 1-2-3 combo towards the end.

The decision was split, two judges giving Mary the gold, the third judge ruling it a tie, with a total of 38 points each.

“I won a bronze at the last Asian Games (2010), and I was unhappy with that,” Mary said later. “I’ve always dreamt of this medal, right from when I started boxing.”

Mary said that she was confident of getting the gold; she said she knew what she had to do to win gold, even after losing the first round.

“I figured out what she was doing, so I changed my strategy,” Mary said. “I began to hit back on the counter, I waited to find my chance. So I waited for her, blocked her, and then tried to score.”

Mary said that getting back into shape after the birth of her son in 2013 was a huge challenge, and that she was able to do that only due to working very hard with her coach, Lenin Meitei. “And my husband made sure that I did not have to worry about my children,” Mary said.

Sarita cries after refusing to accept the bronze medal. PTI

Incheon: Sarita Devi was relaxed and smiling when she arrived at the Seonhak sports complex today — grief and anger gnawed at her heart, but the indecisiveness of yesterday was gone. She walked and smiled like a woman who knew exactly what she was going to do. Sarita had decided that she would receive the medal and then gift it to Korea.

If there had been justice in boxing, Sarita would have fought the final of the women’s 60kg division today. But boxing is rotten to the core, and so her fight in the ring was over yesterday with defeat to South Korea’s Park Jina, a con job by the judges if there ever was one.

So Sarita’s only reason to come to the boxing venue today was to receive the bronze medal, and give it away. Half-an-hour before the medals ceremony was to start, Sarita and her husband, C Thoiba Singh, were on the first tier of the indoor stadium — they talked earnestly, hugged each other. They seemed to be propping up each other in the mind.

Minutes before the ceremony started, Indian chief coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu was searching for Sarita, to bring her to the medal ceremony. Then Sarita appeared and joined the other medallists and the entourage that is part of the ceremony.

Once in the ring, standing behind the podium, Sarita heard chants of “Sarita, Sarita”, and her serenity disappeared and she began to sob and cry and wipe her tears.

She was to receive the first medal, the bronze. She stepped up on the podium, received her bouquet of flowers — but she did not bow down to receive the medal around her neck. Instead, she wanted it to be handed it to her. Thrice the official presenting the medal asked her to let him place the medal on her chest, thrice she said no, shaking her head and gesturing dismissively with her right hand. He then handed Sarita the medal.

On the upper tier, facing her, Thoiba Singh cheered and shouted, as did the Indians among the spectators and, indeed, the Indian mediapersons. Before China’s national anthem was played, Sarita stepped off the podium, walked to Jina, congratulated her and garlanded her with the bronze medal — now poor Park Jina had two medals on her chest. Sarita placed her bouquet on the podium and went back to her place on the podium. There were cheers and shouts and boos and claps.

After China’s national anthem was played, and the flags of the countries of the bronze medallists were raised, Park Jina went to Sarita and tried to give her the medal back. Sarita did not take it back — she hugged Park Jina, held her face in her hands, spoke gently, but refused to take back the medal.

Park Jina later said: “She told me something, but I couldn’t understand what she said. Devi hung her medal on me. I tried to give it back, but she didn’t want to take it. I wasn’t sure what to do, so someone told me to put that on the podium. I left the medal on the podium.”

The boxers left, the medal was on the podium. Then a junior venue official stepped into the ring, picked up the medal, came out and ran out of the hall, towards an administrative office in the stadium.

One Indian journalist thought the medal was being stolen and, shouting, chased this junior official, and the cops too came in, resulting in a noisy melee.

Later, Sarita Devi and Thoiba Singh lambasted the Indian officials. “I took the medal, I received it… and then gave it to the country of Korea as a gift,” she said. “I want to give this medal to Korea. I will then be able to peacefully go home, I’ll meet my son,” she said. “Then I’ll again start boxing, with a free mind, because otherwise this medal will remind me of what happened to me here.”

“I’m really not angry with the Koreans or my opponent, but I’m angry with the Indian officials. The IOA has said nothing to support me. Everyone who comes here, goes and sits in those chairs of the VIPs.” “If I’d won a medal, they would have been here, trying to get into a photo with me,” she said. She said over 24 hours had passed, and no one had come to her, guided her or told her that they are supporting her. What if she’s banned? “That’s OK, what I’ve done is not only for the country, but also for the sporting community,” she said. She said that this was a protest against corruption in sport.

She said one Indian official was sitting in the VIP section. “This happened right in front of him, and he did not come to me to console me,” Sarita went on. “What if that had happened to his own daughter, would he have sat there doing nothing?” “You can’t change the decision, but you should stand with me — to support me.”

Incheon, October 1
In the 1988 Olympic Games, Roy Jones Jr. punched, pummelled, thrashed South Korea’s Park Si-Hun in the gold medal bout of the 71kg class. Jones landed 82 punches to Park’s 32; even South Korean TV commentators said that Park would need to knock out Jones in the final round to win if he were to take gold. But Park was declared the winner by a 3-2 verdict by the five judges.

In the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul, there were 12 weight categories. Guess how many gold medals did South Korea, the hosts, win? They won each gold medal available.

Sarita Devi had a baby boy last year, and she wanted to box again. She had put on weight, so she worked terribly hard to get fit again — 18 months of relentless toil, struggle in this ferocious, painful sport. Her small son lives with his aunt, and thinks she’s his mother. Sarita has trained in the camps away from home, and her son isn’t sure that Sarita is his mother.

Sarita won the bout against Park Jina – even Korean spectators and reporters know that and admit that. Years of toil and blood and sweat were ruined due to judges who were either corrupt or incompetent.

This was Sarita’s last chance to win the Asian Games gold medal, for she’s going to retire in 2016. Boxers believe that the ring is sacrosanct, their place of worship, and she was robbed in the ring. What would you have done if you were Sarita? Sarita decided that she won’t keep the medal, that she would give it away to the “Koreans”.

AIBA, amateur boxing’s ruling body, has very firm rules. No one can protest against the five ringside judges; you could protest against only the referee’s handling of a bout. So even if you know you’ve been robbed, like Sarita knew, you can do absolutely nothing.

Sarita Devi could get into serious trouble for ‘gifting’ Korea the medal — the AIBA officials construe her action, rightly, as a ‘planned protest’. But for decades, we’ve heard stories about how corrupt amateur boxing (and professional boxing, but that’s another story) is. It hasn’t got cleaner over the years.

Many observers and commentators have criticised Sarita Devi’s action of not keeping the medal. They believe that etiquette is more important than justice — they believe that chaos will result if athletes are unable to lose gracefully, even if they’ve been the victims of rigging.

This is consistent with the AIBA’s view. Their technical delegate at the Asian Games is worried that sportspersons could “follow in her footsteps”. He’s worried about the “spirit of fair-play and sportsmanship of the Olympic Movement”. That’s rich — officials in charge of a corrupt sport lecturing athletes who’ve been wronged.

There’s a crucial difference between boxing and other sports; the other sports seem to be making efforts to ensure corruption or errors do not occur in their sport. Tennis has the Hawkeye system and referrals for disputed line calls; football has introduced goalline technology; cricket is, however clumsily, trying to remove umpiring errors through Decision Review System.

Boxing has done nothing, or too little. In fact, Roy Jones Jr. believes that amateur boxing has become more corrupt since his time. Many commentators believe that boxing should be removed from the Olympics because it has failed to clean up its act — the corruption is widespread and too deep-seated, they believe.

Sarita Devi said she protested on behalf of all athletes, against all corrupt officials. Perhaps it was time for someone to stand up, even start a clean-up movement. Perhaps chaos will ensue, but that just could be better than rigging.

Sarita made one big mistake — she humiliated and embarrassed Park Jina by presenting her the medal. That was unnecessary, and took off some of the moral edge from her protest.

Incheon, October 1
The Indian women's hockey team stunned Japan 2-1 to clinch its third bronze medal at the Asian Games after a hiatus of eight years, here today.

The 13th-ranked Indian team produced a spirited effort to avenge its 1-0 loss to the same team in the bronze medal play-off fours years ago. Drag-flicker Jaspreet Kaur and Vandana Kataria were the scorers for India, while Japan's only goal was struck by Akane Shibata. After a barren first quarter, the Indian women broke the deadlock in the 23rd minute.

After Jaspreet was denied by a brilliant save from Japan’s custodian Yuka Yoshikawa from the first penalty corner, India secured another set piece in the next minute which was beautifully converted by the dragflicker to give her side the lead.

The Japanese capitalised on a defensive lapse from the Indians and drew level in the 41st minute when Shibata scored from a goal-mouth melee. But a minute later, Vandana restored India's lead after she was set up by Rani Rampal. — PTI

Paris, October 1
European football greats Francesco Totti and Xavi Hernandez set Champions League records for oldest goalscorer and appearances but neither could cap that personal landmark with victory for their sides Roma and Barcelona respectively.

Totti, 38, scored against Manchester City to level the game at 1-1 — Sergio Aguero having given the hosts the lead with a penalty — to break Ryan Gigg's record set when he was 37 years old. Bayern Munich top the group after beating CSKA Moscow 1-0.

Xavi broke compatriot Raul's appearances record of 142 when he came on as a substitute in the second-half of their 3-2 loss to Paris Saint Germain. — PTI