Africa-Press – Kenya. Nick Okoth “Commander” has permanently lost his bid to win an Olympic medal after a controversial points loss to Mongolian Erdenebat Tsendbaatar that left him in tears.
Okoth lost 2-3 in the featherweight (52-57kg) preliminary round of 32 in Tokyo. Musa said it’s a shame that AIBA are not in charge of the boxing games.
“It’s the Olympic task force which I believe didn’t take time to get these judges together. Nick dominated the fight and threw the most solid punches and displayed competitiveness. It’s a bit surprising that the result didn’t go our way,” fumed Musa.
“However, in the Task Force setting, the judge’s decision is final,” he said.
“They informed us about the protest issue in the technical meeting and therefore, we just have to take it in our stride.
“It’s really sad when you know your boxer was the better of the two and there is no avenue for protests. What to do, we just have to take it in our stride and move on,”Musa added.
He said honesty should remain paramount in scoring with the Olympic being a huge event. He added: “I wouldn’t say my boxer was eliminated fairly when I believe he was a victim of poor officiating. It’s really really absurd and it is not helping our sport either.”
He called on the handlers of the games to come up with a criteria for scoring.
“If it’s aggression or movement that they are looking for in scoring, then they should let us know before hand. It’s no longer the technical aspect of the game that really matters in my opinion,” he quipped.
Okoth was left to rue his exit saying; “It was good that I knew the guy from previous fights.
‘He is the kind of boxer who always goes for the kill from the first gong. So the initial strategy was to evade his punches.
‘Being a lightweight, I had to move down to flyweight to make weight in the games and the Mongolian being a light fly, he moved up to flyweight. So I had to take extra caution in the fight.”
This being his final Olympics due to age, Okoth had wanted to win a medal. He will be 40 by the next Olympic cycle and as such will not be eligible for Paris 2024 .
“I have many medals and Olympic medal is the only one missing. It’s not, however, the end of life. I will remain focused and levelheaded,” Okoth, a younger sibling of Kuala Lumpur 98 Commonwealth silver medalist Absalom Okinyi, said.
“I believe I can get gold in the Commonwealth Games as the Olympic medal aspirations are now done and dusted. It’s really sad but that is sports.”
Okoth is glad though that he gave his all despite the result. He noted: “I believe I gave the opponent a good fight and this is something he will remember for a long time.
“As I focus on the next Commonwealth Games, I believe I have made a statement from what I was able to display. It’s not the worst case scenario where you are permanently on the receiving end. I took the fight to my opponent.”
