NEW DELHI: India’s government suspended the national boxing federation yesterday, dealing it a fresh blow after it was frozen out by the sport’s world governing body for “possible manipulation” in internal polls.
Only days after the Indian Olympic Association was suspended by the IOC over its election of a tainted official, the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) found itself on the receiving end of similar punishment.
“This provisional suspension is... due to the fact that the AIBA had learned about possible manipulation of the recent IABF,” the International Boxing Association (AIBA) said in a statement.
The AIBA “will now investigate this election”, added the statement, which also singled out its concern over the election of Abhey Singh Chautala as IABF chairman after vacating the post of president. His brother-in-law Abhishek Matoria was elected president in his place.
Chautala was on Tuesday also elected unopposed as the president of the Indian Olympic Association even though the International Olympic Committee had made it clear that the vote would not be recognised. Matoria said he was surprised the IABF had been suspended since the world body had been told of the election process in his federation.
“The AIBA had specific queries about the election process and we had explained to them that there was no manipulation,” Matoria said.
But the federal sports ministry backed the world body and suspended the Indian boxing federation on Friday, saying the election process in September was flawed and ordered it to hold fresh elections within 15 days. AGENCIES
Rinker of Qatar Team ends final race in second place
SHARJAH: The Qatar Team’s Terry Rinker finished a superb second overall in yesterday afternoon’s 34-lap Grand Prix of Sharjah, the final round of the 2012 UIM F1 H20 World Championship, on Khalid Lagoon, but the Qatar Team missed out to Team Abu Dhabi on the UIM F1 H20 Teams’ Championship.
The shortened race was yellow-flagged on three occasions but each time Rinker was unable to overtake Al Qamzi, who held on to record his first win of the season.
Rinker finished second and Italy’s Francesco Cantando pipped Sweden’s Jonas Andersson to third place.
Frenchman Phillipe Chiappe confirmed the runner-up spot in the Drivers’ World Championship with sixth position behind rival Sami Selio of Finland.
Carella was forced to start from the rear of the field after Qatar Team technicians changed the Mercury engine on his DAC and it became a case of fighting his way through the field for Qatar’s two-time World Champion.
Unfortunately, he struggled with technical problems from the start and retired from 15th position after 14 laps.
“It’s disappointing not to claim the clean sweep of all four trophies, but I am so pleased for Terry Rinker on a superb race today,” said Khalid bin Arhama Al Kuwari, head of formula racing at the QMSF, which runs under the presidency of Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al Thani.
“He pushed Thani Al Qamzi all the way and we must not forget that he was using an old boat from 2009 and this was only his second race with our team. I did not have chance to speak to Alex immediately after the race but I assume it was an engine problem that caused the retirement today.”
THE PENINSULA
