Boxer's team must take share of blame

Was Boxer Kaew Pongprayoon robbed of a gold medal? The answer does not lie with your reporter, Thai viewers or his Kamphaeng Phet folks. The most independent parties are people like the two British boxing commentators watching the fight. They both agreed that Kaew did enough in the third round to compensate for his deficiencies in the first and second round, and disagreed strongly with the referee for penalising Kaew almost immediately after penalising Zou Shiming.

According to one report, the Thai contingent in London did protest against the decision but the appeal was not accepted for consideration by the judges because it was not made in the due time of five minutes. This five-minute rule is known to all boxing coaches. If accepted for consideration, the chance of success is more than good, especially on the ground of the uncalled-for penalty against Kaew.

Was Kaew robbed? The answer is a resounding “yes”, and he was robbed by the negligence of those officials of the Thailand Boxing Association witnessing the flight at London’s ExCel Arena.

Songdej Praditsmanont

Bangkok