Coaching or judging?
Boxing officials in Sri Lanka will have to make a choice in the new year whether they want to coach or be a referee/judge to ensure transparency and to avoid any conflict of interest issue arising when they do both.
“Coaches are not supposed to be referees and judges (RJ) and vice versa,” emphasised Dian Gomes, President of the Boxing Association of Sri Lanka (BASL).
“We are going to strictly enforce it in the coming year. Either they have to be a coach or referee/judge. That rule is going to be enforced because at one meet – Stubbs Shield – there were complains that one or two RJs were influencing the judges. Plus he was coaching in the backrooms in preparation of his school boxers which is a very bad example. We intend to take some disciplinary action on that,” he said adding that they would be inviting foreign officials for the second consecutive year at the National Championships scheduled to be held next month.
“We are very strict on the neutrality of referees and judges. For the National championship we have already invited five international judges. So we will have three neutral judges for every bout. One of the things I am driving is the transparency in boxing,” said Gomes in an interview with the Sunday Times also declaring his intention of continuing as BASL president for another term.
“The most important thing is people have absolute confidence on my transparency and my credibility to support boxing, and give financial support to keep the sport going. As (BASL) president, I consider that the most important thing is my credibility as president of boxing on the integrity part, so that all monies given by the sponsorship company has been utilised to develop the country’s boxing,” said Gomes who is fondly regarded as the godfather of Sri Lanka boxing during the past two decades.
“I would definitely be coming forward for the next four years with a much stronger team. For the last 20 years, there has not been any contest other than for one or two posts. Boxing has always had a good succession plan but the current team is saying I need to do another four years especially to get the next medal at the Commonwealth Games,” said the 63-year-old ‘Cornerman’ who revived the flagging fortunes of Sri Lanka boxing.
“I think now with my retirement in the corporate life and not holding any other positions in both private and public sector, that I would spend my time developing the country’s boxing,” he pledged.
Asked what his goals and objectives were when he took charge for another stint in 2016, he said: “Initially I held the president of boxing for eight years and I have been able to deliver brand boxing, strategize Sri Lanka boxing into an international arena by bringing Anuruddha Ratnayaka to the Olympic Games after a lapse of 40 years. That was one of my greater achievements in my first two stints.”
“This stint actually I was forced to take on the presidency because boxing was going down and lot of politics was creeping in. They wanted a strong personality to hold the reins to give leadership and to create the transparency again. So my first task was to create transparency in refereeing and judging both at school level and at the national level,” said Gomes, a former junior national champion.
“If you could ask me what my success is on that, I would say I have only achieved 75 per cent of the success. Still some (bad) decisions are being made and judges tend to be manipulated by one or two people. So I am going to put a real stop to it and I am going to make some hard calls. If I cannot make hard calls, I will get the AIBA (world body) involved as well,” said Gomes who is an executive committee member of ASBC (Asian Boxing Confederation) and is a member of the AIBA women’s commission.
“We brought in international judges last time for the National championships. This time for the National championship and for future major meets, we will most probably have a foreign ITO (International Technical Officer) or a RJ Evaluator so that obviously the reports will be both given to myself, ASBC and AIBA,” he said.
“Obviously these reports will be sent to the mother company which will have disastrous results on any individual who is not transparent, if he or she wants a career in the international arena. That will automatically get the transparency done overnight. This year’s Nationals will have each bout with three foreign judges. It will absolutely be meritocracy. No manipulation can be even dreamt of,” said Gomes, who serves as Honorary Consul General of Georgia.