Olympic boxing is infamous for its history of controversial judging decision and suspicious scoring, and unfortunately Ireland has often fell victim to these decisions.
Michael Conaln's famous outburst after the 2016 Olympic quarterfinal is the one that springs to people's minds, but it appears that even in 2024, things have not improved.
Daina Moorehouse from Wicklow was boxing well against France’s Wassila Lkhadiri, and many believed that she was winning the fight both fairly and convincingly.
However, strange score cards revealed that the fight had been scored in favour of the French woman by split decision, and there was an immediate reaction of rage and distrust from the Irish coaches, as well as those watching from home.
The absolute raw frustration for @TeamIreland #boxing coach, Zaur Antia, and his team after the decision went against Daina Moorehouse.#Olympics ☘️ pic.twitter.com/bpatTopTXz
— Des Cahill (@sportsdes) August 2, 2024
Kenneth Egan called the decision "absolutely shameful" on RTÉ.
It has since been confirmed that two of the judges who were officiating that fight, had been deemed to be at “high risk” of manipulating bouts and were subsequently stood down in 2021 have officiated more than 20 fights combined at the Olympics.
Well, this news doesn't surprise me! Two judges who were earmarked as being 'high risk of manipulating bouts' and were stood down in 2021. The very two judged Daina Moorehouse's bout against Lkhadiri (FRA). I find that both worrying and infuriating. The system is broken. 😠 https://t.co/zViVSrMuD1
— Cllr Eric Donovan (@ericdonovanbox) August 3, 2024
The Times of London reported that Emil Gurbanaliyev and Sergei Krutasov were randomly selected for integrity testing by Professor Richard McLaren in October 2021.
The results were so alarming that they were both removed from the referees and judges pool at the AIBA World Championships in Serbia that month.
Despite this, both were selected as technical officials by the 2024 Paris Boxing Unit (PBU) for these Games, and were involved in Moorehouse's bout, amongst a host of thers.
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Now it has been revealed today by the same publication that Yermek Suiyenish, a Kazakh judge who scored the Moorehouse fight, was also stood down before the medal fights.
This means that three out of the five judges involved in ending the 22-year-old's Olympic dreams were stood down before the medal rounds.
All three scored the fight for the French fighter.
Suiyenish was also the referee for Grainne Walsh’s Olympic debut against Anna Luca Hamori, and although this fight wasn't as controversial, the manner in which it was officiated did raise some questions.
Walsh was being held and leaned on heavily throughout the bout, a clear tactic to try and slow your opponent down and smother their work, but an illegal one nonetheless, and the referee did little to prevent it from happening.
It should be noted that Suiyenish was the referee for Kellie Harrington's winning fight against Beatriz Ferreira of Brazil and had Jack Marley down as a winner on his card when the Dub claimed victory in his Olympic debut.
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