Faulty scales open Commonwealth Games, younger Khan shines
The Commonwealth Games are already off to a fun start following a near ridiculous official weigh-in in New Delhi.
Faulty scales created panic for many fighters as they were told they were up to two kilos overweight. Several took to running in 30 Celsius weather or jumping into saunas. After intensive workouts many returned only to find they had put on weight.
“There was boxers everywhere running,” Australian team captain Luke Woods reported. “It was crazy.”
“(New Zealand boxer) Nathan McEwen sampled a couple of scales yesterday and thought they weren't right, so we almost expected it. They hadn't been calibrated,” Kiwi team boss Billy Meehan explained to the
New Zealand Herald.
Woods got at some of the difficulties and disadvantages to scale errs, saying that fighters desperately trying to lose weight make for tournament easy targets due to fatigue and weakness incurred by unnatural weight-loss.
“When they are told they have to lose another kilo on top of that, it is like trying to get blood from a stone and very damaging for the body and puts us at risk.”
Aside from scale faults, Haroon Khan, the 19-year old brother of WBA junior welterweight champion Amir Khan, was able to make a successful first round appearance against Tanzania’s Sunday Elias in a flyweight bout. The young Khan’s appearance for Pakistan
was something of an issue as after he failed to it make the English squad.
Brother Amir successfully accrued a silver medal for England at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. He was Britain’s sole representative on the occasion.
“This is a big opportunity for me, especially to prove the critics wrong in England, and I am confident that I can prove that,” Amir said after winning his bout. “It’s going to be tough. Every boxer in this competition wants what I want, which is a gold
medal, and I’m just going to do my best to grab that.”
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