Olympic boxing given all-clear

Referee Stanislav Kirsanov (centre) has been suspended

The Olympic boxing competition has been cleared of claims of corruption - despite two referees being suspended at Sydney.

The International Amateur Boxing Association found no evidence of corruption at the Games, AIBA general secretary Loring Baker revealed.

Yugoslav Sreten Jabucanin and Russian Stanislav Kirsanov were both banned for four years following debatable decisions in favour of fighters from Kazakhstan.

Baker says that the federation had found no evidence of corruption but would welcome any proof of wrongdoing.

"If anyone has proof of such things, we'd love to have it, against anyone, myself included," Baker said.

"I'm sure any official would be removed if we had proof."

Protested

The US team protested at the handling of the featherweight final in which Bekzat Sattarkhanov posted a 22-14 points win over US world champion Ricardo Juarez, which was officiated by Kirsanov.

Kirsanov was immediately suspended, but the result was allowed to stand and Sattarkhanov kept the gold medal for Kazakhstan.

Uzbekistan also failed in their bid to reverse the result of the super-heavyweight semi-final between their fighter Rustam Saidov and Kazakhstan's Mukhtarkan Dildabekov, but Jabucanin was still suspended.

Baker admits that the standard of refereeing in the semi-final was below the standard expected, he can find no explanation for it except incompetence.

"We have no evidence whatsoever of any official taking bribes."

But two officials involved in the tournament and speaking on condition of anonymity alleged Monday that more than 10 percent of fights were fixed.

Doubtful

"I would say 20-25 percent of fights were doubtful decisions and I would say half of them were out and out stitch-up jobs," one of the officials told the Australian Associated Press.

"A number of referees vowed they would never want to be part of an Olympic boxing programme again."

The AIBA went into the Olympics apparently expecting trouble.

Spy cameras were installed over the judges to monitor their scoring and prevent any kind of impropriety.

Olympic boxing has long had a dubious reputation and reached its low point at the 1988 Seoul Games when allegations of corruption resulted in 18 referees and judges being suspended.

Four years later, computer scoring was introduced in an attempt to clean up the judging but AIBA president Anwar Chowdhry recently admitted that much of the officiating in Barcelona in 1992 was also corrupt.