Boxer Kaew Wins Thai Hearts As The Country Is Outraged After He Is Denied Olympic Gold

[khaowong1]

Now let me think, USA five times the population of GB and N Ireland. Did they get five times Gold Silver or Bronze?(quote)

Now let me think, according to your calculations and excuses why your country did not excel more at winning medals, then China and of course India should have beat USA by say 4x or 5x times. Come on! USA has the best competitive athletes in the world in a multitude of sports and we are proud of it! This topic is about a great Thai boxer that lost his fight to China and has shown unThai like qualities by being a sore loser in front of millions of viewers! I would have been more impressed with Thailand if their boxer would have just smiled and been proud to receive his medal and not cry like a child.

1. Agree but most of your athletes were imported 200 years ago on slave ships, nothinng to be proud of there!

2. Un Thai like qualities??? how long have you been here?

Lets see, we imported our athletes 200 years ago, so wouldn't that make them well over 200 years old and ineligible for competition? Your going to have to dig deeper than that bubba.

[spidermike007]

LONDON GAMES 2012

Disappointing result didn't dent pride in her champion son

The Nation

A file photo Mali Pongprayoon on August 10 in Kamphang Phet Province

BANGKOK: -- On National Mother's Day yesterday, the mother of Thailand's hottest boxer Kaew Pongprayoon was trying hard to fight back tears upon seeing her son declared the loser in his Olympic light flyweight final, despite boxing brilliantly and winning huge applause from the audience.

But in a telephone conversation with her son, she still offered lots of moral support to him.

"Don't be sad. You have done your best," Mali Pongprayoon told Kaew.

The mother also promised to pick up her son at Suvarnabhumi Airport when he returns from the London Olympics.

Many Thai fans were angry at the referees' decision, saying Kaew outboxed China's Zou Shiming, who was awarded the gold medal.

Due to yesterday's loss, Kaew will return to Thailand with a silver medal.

"I am not sad that the referees seem to favour his opponent," Mali said.

Kaew's father Kham Pongprayoon said he was not sad either. "I am glad that my son has done really well," he said.

The couple thanked all Thais for cheering their son.

Mali said Kaew had struggled hard for a long time because his parents were very poor. She said she and her husband had six children together, including Kaew.

"He left home when he was still very young. He had to go from one boxing camp to another for so long. But his perseverance has paid off," the mother said proudly.

Kaew's parents live in Kamphaeng Phet's Klong Lan Pattana district.

In Ayutthaya, Kaew's wife Tharathip Pongprayoon said she was proud of her husband even though he lost the final match.

"I think he has boxed very well, and the world - except the referees - sees him as the winner," she said.

She said if she gave birth to a son, she would name him "London".

"I also hope my son will follow in his father's footsteps," Tharathip said.

She thanked the Thai public for standing by Kaew's side and showering him with support.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, according to Government Spokeswoman Sansanee Nakpong, said Kaew won the hearts of both the Thai and foreign audiences.

Tomorrow, Yingluck will preside over a thank-you party at the Paragon Hall, Siam Paragon, for the Thai athletes who took part in the 2012 Olympic Games.

-- The Nation 2012-08-13

Yes, his mother and father should be extremely proud. This warrior is a tremendous example of a Thai fighter. He found well, and was robbed. Why that penalty was given in the last 10 seconds was beyond me. I watched that tape over and over again, and the only conclusion I could come to was that this was another example of China buying off an international official. It happens all the time. China is one of the most heinous and corrupt, and power hungry nations on earth. They will stop at nothing to achieve international fame, and renown. This fight was badly officiated. The Chinese fighter behaved more like a wrestler, and should have been disqualified, or penalized far more than 2 points. This fight was a travesty, and is one of the few occasions I feel, that the Thai people are justified in their outrage. Shame on the Olympic judges.

[spidermike007]

Win or lose, you never act like that after the results are announced

Very poor loser

Not sure what is worse for Thai image

1- This boxer and his crying and actions on TV

2- Or some lady saying she is going to buy a fake rolex

My feeling also. suck it up.. be a man. At least he didn't lose to some farang. boy, that would have lit the Thai's up.

Well, he knew he was robbed. Pure and simple. Grand larceny by the Chinese. A judge bought and paid for. It was apparent, and that was what the Thais were reacting to. I thought the behavior of his coach was fun. Let them have it. Why hold back? Tell it like it is. Egg on the face of the officials, and the Chinese. The Chinese are behaving like rich thugs. It was obvious they bought this fight.

[metisdead]

An inflammatory post has been removed.

[Nisa]

The "little guy" , as the English announcer kept referring to him during the fight, is a true champion and one Thailand can be very proud to call their own.

Edited August 13, 2012 by sbk
no need to quote the whole article

[delh]

Now let me think, USA five times the population of GB and N Ireland. Did they get five times Gold Silver or Bronze?(quote)

Now let me think, according to your calculations and excuses why your country did not excel more at winning medals, then China and of course India should have beat USA by say 4x or 5x times. Come on! USA has the best competitive athletes in the world in a multitude of sports and we are proud of it! This topic is about a great Thai boxer that lost his fight to China and has shown unThai like qualities by being a sore loser in front of millions of viewers! I would have been more impressed with Thailand if their boxer would have just smiled and been proud to receive his medal and not cry like a child.

I agree, the topic is about the Thai boxer. But I am not the individual who informed us all that the US has the best competitive athletes in the world (if this were true, why did US not win ALL of the athletics medals too) and are the best in the world at everything.

Its an observation that if the population is much,much greater then one might expect that same country to produce more medal winners. Please do clarify what you perceive to be my excuses.

For me, the Thai boxer was robbed, his management need to explain their failure to register their

complaint within the allotted time.

Edited August 13, 2012 by delh

[Nisa]

Now let me think, USA five times the population of GB and N Ireland. Did they get five times Gold Silver or Bronze?(quote)Now let me think, according to your calculations and excuses why your country did not excel more at winning medals, then China and of course India should have beat USA by say 4x or 5x times. Come on! USA has the best competitive athletes in the world in a multitude of sports and we are proud of it! This topic is about a great Thai boxer that lost his fight to China and has shown unThai like qualities by being a sore loser in front of millions of viewers! I would have been more impressed with Thailand if their boxer would have just smiled and been proud to receive his medal and not cry like a child.

1. Agree but most of your athletes were imported 200 years ago on slave ships, nothinng to be proud of there!2. Un Thai like qualities??? how long have you been here?

Lets see, we imported our athletes 200 years ago, so wouldn't that make them well over 200 years old and ineligible for competition? Your going to have to dig deeper than that bubba.

Not that this is on topic but a number were imported a lot less than 200 years ago. More than 40 of the US Olympians were foreign born. Here are pics of a few of them ...

http://sports.yahoo....1342557429.html

Edited August 13, 2012 by Nisa

[Nodski]

anyone who knows a thing about boxing knows he won that fight or they didn't watch the fight!

he was hitting him in the body like a punching bag in the 3rd.

Absolutely!! Very well said.

[Nodski]

Now let me think, USA five times the population of GB and N Ireland. Did they get five times Gold Silver or Bronze?(quote)

Now let me think, according to your calculations and excuses why your country did not excel more at winning medals, then China and of course India should have beat USA by say 4x or 5x times. Come on! USA has the best competitive athletes in the world in a multitude of sports and we are proud of it! This topic is about a great Thai boxer that lost his fight to China and has shown unThai like qualities by being a sore loser in front of millions of viewers! I would have been more impressed with Thailand if their boxer would have just smiled and been proud to receive his medal and not cry like a child.

rbrooks obviously has never boxed and knows nothing about the sport! So best you keep quiet!

[Nodski]

A look at the other side ... http://www.chinadail...nt_15670913.htm

Also found a comment interesting...

Zou said attacking the Thai was too risky, as the Olympic bout was too short to make any mistakes.

"I was so eager for victory and felt so much pressure, but I had to be patient and cautious," Zou said.

"The fight had only three rounds (at three minutes each), and I couldn't afford to take any risk while attacking."

They really should have these fights be longer than 3-rounds.

Zou is a disgrace to boxing. Never seen such a pathetic excuse for a fighter in 30+ years!

[spongeman]

Win or lose, you never act like that after the results are announced

Very poor loser

Not sure what is worse for Thai image

1- This boxer and his crying and actions on TV

2- Or some lady saying she is going to buy a fake rolex

My feeling also. suck it up.. be a man. At least he didn't lose to some farang. boy, that would have lit the Thai's up.

Well, he knew he was robbed. Pure and simple. Grand larceny by the Chinese. A judge bought and paid for. It was apparent, and that was what the Thais were reacting to. I thought the behavior of his coach was fun. Let them have it. Why hold back? Tell it like it is. Egg on the face of the officials, and the Chinese. The Chinese are behaving like rich thugs. It was obvious they bought this fight.

Hear Hear. kick up a stink boxing is a great sport but once again cheats and liars prosper ? Should his coach have acted like that ? Yes he should have fair play to him, stood up for his boxer.

[Nisa]

Not sure how anybody with any knowledge of sports competitiveness can say this Thai boxer acted even a tiny bit badly. His coach on the other hand did but even that was not that bad. As for sports and culture, they are two different things anywhere you go. How often do you see the police come out and arrest players for fighting each other on the field or a baseball player being arrested for assault with a deadly weapons for intentionally launching a solid object at somebody at 90mph?

I wish some posters could find another way to compensate for their inferior feelings and let this one topic actually be about an extremely talented young man who was born poor and rose up to represent his country at the Olympics in a way that both he and his country should be extremely proud.

[Nisa]

A look at the other side ... http://www.chinadail...nt_15670913.htm

Also found a comment interesting...

Zou said attacking the Thai was too risky, as the Olympic bout was too short to make any mistakes.

"I was so eager for victory and felt so much pressure, but I had to be patient and cautious," Zou said.

"The fight had only three rounds (at three minutes each), and I couldn't afford to take any risk while attacking."

They really should have these fights be longer than 3-rounds.

Zou is a disgrace to boxing. Never seen such a pathetic excuse for a fighter in 30+ years!

While I want to agree with you 100%, I really can't blame a guy too much for using his brains and the rules to win. Just like the teams who threw matches. These things should never be an option. The rules should be designed in a way to do everything possible to assure the best players / teams win. I have not followed the guy but from what I have read, he seems to be a very calculated performer (not boxer) and knows how to get the wins.

[oops]

At first it really pisses me off to know that the Judge was the Chinese guys father in law...." How does this happen" this only shows that this was a corrupt fight.

It is very obvious that the Thai guy won. However, now Thailand gets a taste of their own medicine. It's just to bad the thai boxer has to wear it.

[oops]

Some of the boxing judges have made questionable decisions in this Olympics and they got this one wrong as well.

The sad truth is, what if the games were in Thailand. Would they be fixed or fare?

[skills32]

You have to hand it to the Chinese.

If you can't dope then bribe.

[binjalin]

the point is why didn't they appeal within the 5 minutes the Rules state? instead of acting like babies GO APPEAL the clocks ticking

I saw an appeal that overturned a medal during this Olympics (gymnastics I think) and it 'could' have happened this time but what happened...? the Thais ignored the Rules then whined later - sorry but...

[Nodski]

This sore loser crap will be coming from people that achieved zero of this magnitude in a sporting context.

The guy is upset at being clearly robbed of the Gold medal. The unfortunate thing is that he is too old to use it as motivation and come back at the next Olympics.

Shame on the judges and the IOC should be arranging an investigation into this fight.

Well said 'theblether' - this sore loser rubbish comes from cretins who have never understood what it means to put your life and soul into a sport, and then be cheated when so close. (all ok for them to squeal though) Easy to criticise him when dying to get a dig in for 'hard done by farangs' - but we are not talking about their position right now. We are discussing sport, boxing, the Olympics, and a clealry cheated Thai guy of his gold medal by a pathetic referee & judge panel, and a very dirty Chinese fighter. How many of these critics have trained hard in the gym for 20 years??

[binjalin]

Win or lose, you never act like that after the results are announced

Very poor loser

Not sure what is worse for Thai image

1- This boxer and his crying and actions on TV

2- Or some lady saying she is going to buy a fake rolex

nothing bad about this for thai image, the crowd were completely with him, they knew who really won as do most people and boxing analysts alike.

nothing wrong with showing your upset that you were completely shafted for a gold medal in the olympics, no shame in it at all.

the only shame falls on the judges.

I sort of agree with you although I think it was also the fault of the Thai Olympics Team who didn't get their objection in on time that was the compounding felony on the judges' decision. It also happened in the earlier rounds of the competition when they failed, again, to get their objection in on time. Surely someone in the Thai Team should have read the rules meticulously BEFORE the Olympics even began? I hope they sleep easy in their beds after denying these Thai sportsmen their rewards.

this is the POINT the stupid managers and handlers who whined later but did NOTHING within the 5 minutes - now I hear they are saying 'but we did appeal'. Putting up the hand of your boxer saying 'he won, he won' is not appealing and, in my view, it is THEIR fault he didn't get a fair chance to get the judges to review the whole fight which he may have won in hindsight.

But isn't this typically Thailand???

[sbk]

Thread is about Kaew the Boxer

not about your perceived injustices, not about Thai basing, British bashing or American bashing

BOXER

remember!

[oops]

You win some and lose some. That's life.

Of course handing out "incentives" to the judges may help to win more than you lose. Shame Kaew didn't knock him out.

Yeah! it is a shame, and as soon as I read your post I started smiling because wouldn't it be sweet revenge by the British had he knocked the Chinese guy out and still lost.... : ) It would of been more poetic This would of shown the Thia's we understand that if the Thai guy wouldn't of been in England the Chinese guy wouldn't of been knocked out so he would of won.

[Nisa]

The coach knows the appeals process and am sure he knows it much better than posters here. Also protesting the point deduction would not have got his boxer to win even if in the rare event the protest was upheld. And there is about an absolute zero chance a protest on the judges decision would have been upheld. As for filing protest within 5-minutes, I believe this is incorrect and you simply have to make your intention of a protest be known within 5-minutes and then have 30-minutes to file the written protest along with a cash deposit that is kept if you lose the protest which is almost always the case.

But maybe I am wrong and there are those posters here who are wasting their time at their keyboard when in fact they should be coaches for Olympians.

[binjalin]

The coach knows the appeals process and am sure he knows it much better than posters here. Also protesting the point deduction would not have got his boxer to win even if in the rare event the protest was upheld. And there is about an absolute zero chance a protest on the judges decision would have been upheld. As for filing protest within 5-minutes, I believe this is incorrect and you simply have to make your intention of a protest be known within 5-minutes and then have 30-minutes to file the written protest along with a cash deposit that is kept if you lose the protest which is almost always the case.

But maybe I am wrong and there are those posters here who are wasting their time at their keyboard when in fact they should be coaches for Olympians.

and did he make it 'known' within 5 minutes...? NO

so, going by your logic, he did not appeal because he... what? lost??? I don't believe it - I think they simply screwed up and didn't appeal in time

also your 'absolute zero' is wrong as there have been a few occasions where appeals have been made and won - I saw one in the gymnastics where a girl was 4th and was appealed and raised to 3rd and a medal.

they didn't act and instead 'pretended' their boy had won by holding up his arm in some sort of mock 'we won, we won' instead of thinking 'this is a disgrace we will appeal'

[theajarn]

...and this is why I don't glue myself to the TV to watch ANY sport, most especially boxing, football etc. You never know whether the results of the fight will be fixed or not. I'd rather watch WWF wrestling because I KNOW that shit's for real.

Real acting, that is.

[7by7]

I watched the fight live on the BBC.

As I said in this post in the Olympic topic:-

A total travesty; Zou was holding and leaning on Kaeo the whole fight and received numerous private warnings before finally being given a public one, Then Kaeo was given a public warning for no reason that I, or the BBC commentators, could see!

Ok Zou won by three points, so would have won anyway; if the scoring was correct, it's been called into question before at these games. Questions raised over London 2012 Olympic boxing scores

Zou is the first boxer to successfully defend his Olympic championship; as was announced over the PA almost before the result itself was! Perhaps as soon as the defending champion reached the final the powers that be decided to do what they could to ensure he won. Remember he only got to the final by count back after drawing his semi final.

He was booed when announced as the winner and again at the medal ceremony.

Kaeo at Wat Buddhapadipa in Wimbledon on Sunday with the rest of the Thai team.

[RAZZELL]

7by 7...If they're your pics I must have been standing next to you at Wimbledon!

RAZZ

[Nisa]

The coach knows the appeals process and am sure he knows it much better than posters here. Also protesting the point deduction would not have got his boxer to win even if in the rare event the protest was upheld. And there is about an absolute zero chance a protest on the judges decision would have been upheld. As for filing protest within 5-minutes, I believe this is incorrect and you simply have to make your intention of a protest be known within 5-minutes and then have 30-minutes to file the written protest along with a cash deposit that is kept if you lose the protest which is almost always the case.

But maybe I am wrong and there are those posters here who are wasting their time at their keyboard when in fact they should be coaches for Olympians.

and did he make it 'known' within 5 minutes...? NO

so, going by your logic, he did not appeal because he... what? lost??? I don't believe it - I think they simply screwed up and didn't appeal in time

also your 'absolute zero' is wrong as there have been a few occasions where appeals have been made and won - I saw one in the gymnastics where a girl was 4th and was appealed and raised to 3rd and a medal.

they didn't act and instead 'pretended' their boy had won by holding up his arm in some sort of mock 'we won, we won' instead of thinking 'this is a disgrace we will appeal'

Can you remember any details about the appeal with the gymnasts that we could look up the circumstances? I highly doubt an Olympic Committee would over rule judges opinion unless they made a technical error such as tabulating a score based on difficulty.

With all that could be gained by a player, coach and country by moving from Silver to Gold it would make sense for every coach to appeal any close match... but they don't. I can state with absolute certainty that a protest on the judges scoring would NEVER have been upheld in this case. A protest on the referees call / point deduction possibly (unlikely) but not on the Judges scoring in a situation like this ... if a Judge inaccurately tabulated scores that is one thing but another thing all together to over turn the judges view of the fight. In subjective matches where there is no single defined score such as a photo finish the judges are the judges ... maybe in the future they will use video and computers to tabulate things such as how far apart a divers or gymnasts legs are when doing a routine but until that day, the Olympic committee puts their trust in the judges.

I also have absolutely no doubt what-so-ever that the coach knows more about the appeals process than you or I and filing an appeal that you know you will lose and that results in the declared winner being delayed his Gold is not an emotional outburst but a very calculated way of being sportsman like .

Edited August 13, 2012 by Nisa

[PoodMaiDai]

Perhaps the ref spent some time in Thailand and was getting his revenge for being cheated the entire time he was here.

[PoodMaiDai]

The sad truth is, what if the games were in Thailand. Would they be fixed or fare?

I think we all know the answer to that. And not only the games, but all the visitors who would come here. They too would get cheated as much as possible.

But Thailand will never, ever hold the games, so we'll never know for sure.

[Siripon]

Apologies if it's already been said, but Kaeow won silver (medal) in England and gold (hearts) in Thailand.