DEFEATED, DEJECTED AND DISGRACED.
You can now add disqualified to that list.
The Bajan lasses have definitely earned a D-grade at the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships.
Gheeta Narine certainly did nothing to dispel that notion following Sunday’s shameful performance, where the local pugilist was trampled and then tossed from her featherweight bout against North Korea’s former champ Yun Kum Ju at the Wildey Gym.
This time the fight went into a second round, but just barely, as the local lass was disqualified just 16 seconds past the bell after hitting her opponent when the referee had broken the action.
It was the second time Narine was guilty of such an offence, having been penalised in the first round for striking Ju in the back of the head directly following a similar break of action.
Even more humiliating was that the first offence came on the heels of a standing eight count, which Narine received after walking into a flurry of blows from Ju.
And the second penalty didn’t differ much from the first, as Narine was sent to the canvas on the back of a straight right before leaping up to pounce on the defenceless North Korean.
Like Jenny Benedict before her, Narine had no shortage of local support while entering the ring to rapturous applause. But she left in similar fashion less than four minutes later as Barbadians still cheered the teetered teen.
They did likewise for Jamila Jones in the previous bout, only to see the Trini get pummelled 18-3 on points by Turkey’s Nagehan Gul in that same 57 kg category.
But most of the day’s action focused on the featherweight division (51 kg), where China’s world champ Ren Cancan moved closer to another title by thumping Nilmini Jayasinghe of Sri Lanka 11-3 on points.
Cancan next faces Turkey’s Sumeyra Yazici, who outlasted Laishram Devi of India 12-8 in the subsequent fight to advance to the round of 16.
Bulgaria’s EU queen Stoyka Petrova had a similarly tough time of it, barely getting past Romanian Lidia Ion on the judge’s cumulative scores after the Europeans both ended the four rounds with 11 points.
North Korea’s world champ Kim Hyang Ok wasn’t so lucky though, falling to the gritty American Marlen Esparza 12-7 in one hard fought contest.
The fight lived up to the hype from the opening round, as Ok stormed out to a 2-0 advantage before the two traded scores back and forth up to the third.
However, Esparza seized control on a left hook counter and two subsequent straight rights, taking an 8-5 cushion that she never relinquished.
That was far as the shock defeats specials went, with Algeria’s Chirifi Nahiza failing to register another upset, far less a point, before the referee stopped her bout against European queen Tetyana Kob of Ukraine.
