A Saligaokar in the News Complaints of faulty scales at CWG boxing weigh-in PTI
The general weigh-in ahead of the Commonwealth Games boxing competition turned out to be a chaotic affair on Monday with the Australian team complaining that the scales were faulty, a claim refuted by the Technical Delegate for the event. The Australian team complained that the scales at the venue were giving incorrect readings prompting the boxers to work out more to make the cut for their respective categories. But the Technical Delegate for the event Ray Silva, who is responsible for conducting the entire exercise, said the weigh-in went off without any complaint. "Everything was OK. Today was not the competition weigh-in. Today was a general weigh-in in which the boxers are put into their respective categories. The competition weigh-in is tomorrow morning when the bouts will start and it is here that the boxers have to weigh according to the category they are in. It is routine stuff," Silva told PTI. The CWG Competition Manager for boxing, Lenny D'Gama said Australians did have some complaints but they have been sorted out. "It's a problem everytime a boxer goes overweight but they were shown the machines and everything was explained to them and there is no problem now," he said. Keywords: CWG 2010 http://www.thehindu.com/sport/other-sports/article813018.ece * * * Boxers furious after chaos at Commonwealth weigh-in Cathal Kelly Staff Reporter NEW DELHI – A faulty set of scales has created chaos at weigh-ins before the boxing competitions at the Commonwealth Games, which are set to begin on Tuesday. Several competitors were told they were as much as two kilos overweight, sparking panicked efforts to shed pounds. Some boxers began sprinting around the athletes’ village in 30 C temperatures. Others jumped into the sauna. Many returned to the scales and found that things had gotten worse. Two Australian boxers were initially shown to be 700 grams overweight. After a frantic workout, they were reweighed – and found to be two kilograms overweight. “There was boxers everywhere running,” Australian team captain Luke Woods said. “It was crazy.” “(New Zealand boxer) Nathan McEwen had tried a couple of scales yesterday and thought they weren't right, so we almost expected it. They hadn't been calibrated,” Kiwi team boss Billy Meehan told the New Zealand Herald. “I thought last year when I witnessed a bloke in Victoria win a fight with one arm I'd seen it all, but this even tops that,” an Aussie team coach, Don Abnett, said. “Boxers all over the world, they drop four or five kilos of their natural weight just to make the division and they are already dehydrated and haven't eaten or drunk in 24 hours,” Woods said. “When they are told they have to lose another kilo on top of that, it is like trying to get blood from a stone and very damaging for the body and puts us at risk.” After several complaints, venue officials were convinced to check the scales by testing a 50-kg weight. The scales showed it weighing 51.4 kg. All the Monday weigh-ins were voided. Competitors are due to be retested on Tuesday, before the start of matches. “It is ridiculous, and now we have boys who have lost too much weight, which is not good,” Australia’s Abnett complained. “It is a farce, but there is not a lot more we can do.” With files from AP http://www.thestar.com/sports/commonwealthgames/article/870766--boxers-furious-after-chaos-at-commonwealth-weigh-in -- This message comes via the Google Groups "Saligao-Net" group. To post to this group, send email to saligao-net@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to saligao-net-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/saligao-net?hl=en Please post regularly to keep the e-village active!
