At the conclusion of her women's 64kg category bout against Megan Reid, India's Simranjeet Kaur, having taking a unanimous points decision, headed to her opponent's corner. The Scotswoman's chief coach greeted the Indian warmly, putting his arm around her shoulders and congratulating her. It was behaviour in stark contrast to that of Bulgaria's coach Petar Yosifov following the decision in the bout featuring Stanimira Petrova and another Indian, Sonia Chahal, in a 57kg category contest at the Women's Boxing World Championships in New Delhi on Monday.
With the Indian taking a 3-2 split decision against the 2014 World Champion, Yosifov, a former Olympic gold medallist at the 1980 Moscow Games, flung a bottle of water into the ring and stormed off. "It is corruption by the judges. It is not a fair result," Yosifov yelled as he gesticulated angrily at the Indian spectators. Yosifov received a ban from the venue for the remainder of the competition.
"The AIBA has decided to remove the accreditation, and therefore the right to be in the corner, from the coach of the Bulgarian delegation Petar Yosifov Lesov due to his unacceptable behaviour...," the world body said in a statement.
Hometown decisions are part and parcel of international boxing. India has benefitted in the past - a case in point being the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the 2017 World Youth Championships for women, which were the country's most successful -- and has also been at the receiving end of seemingly unfair calls. "The country hosting a tournament usually gets the benefit of the doubt or a little help from the judges. That's been the case for a long time," said an AIBA official who wasn't authorized to speak to the media.
The only two Indians to be beaten in the competition so far (Sarita Devi in the women's 60kg and Saweety Boora in the 75kg category) suffered knockdowns. Indeed, even though Devi had lost a split decision earlier in the competition, Indian coach Shiv Singh had argued that perhaps she should have gotten the advantage. "It was a close fight and one would think that since it was happening at home, we should have been given the win," he said.
Simranjeet's win was a bit of relief for jaded observers of the sport, if only for the decisive nature of her victory. While the 23-year-old from Chakar village in Punjab leaves herself relatively open to punches, she makes up for it with her own barrage to ensure she returns the favour with interest.
Boxing earlier in the day, Sonia seemed overawed by her illustrious opponent, an Olympian at the Rio Games and three-time European gold medallist. She seemed to be in a shell in the first round with Indian coach Rafaele Bergamasco having to yell at her to hit her counters rather than constantly step back. Even so, four judges scored the round 10-9 in her favour. The second round was unanimously awarded to the Bulgarian. Even Sonia would admit to coming off badly in the second round. "I felt I had lost the second round and so I felt I had to attack more in the third," she said after her bout. It was only in the third round that the Indian seemed to find her range and managed a few telling blows that appeared to have swayed the judges, three of whom gave her a 29-28 decision.
The cynically minded might also argue that another Indian, Pinki Jangra, also took a marginal call in her 4-1 decision against England's Ebonie Jones. Jangra was confident to wait for her opponent to attack before finding a target on the counter. Depending on one's opponent to initiate all the exchanges worked in this bout but it isn't always looked upon favourably by judges.
But there were no complaints to be made about how Simranjit won. The judges didn't have to look to hard to see her scoring strikes. After a relatively sedate first round where she seemed to be gauging her opponent's reflexes, the Indian let loose over the next two rounds, even leaving the Scot with a trickle of blood running down her nose. With no doubt about his boxer's defeat, the Scot coach's praise was deserved and mirrored the positive words Billy Walsh, coach of Simranjit's opponent in the first round, had to say for the Indian.
Regardless of how they got there, the fact remains that eight Indians will feature in Tuesday's quarterfinals. Should they all go through to the medal rounds, India could emulate their previous best result of eight medals from 2006, the last time the Championships were held in New Delhi.