Opinion divided over new scoring system

NEW DELHI: After watching the impressive boxing of Sumit Sangwan, everyone thought the Indian had won by a mile, barring the judges. The verdict by the 'five wise men' at the ExCeL arena shocked everyone when the Indian pugilist was declared the loser.
It was again the same story on Friday when Vikas Krishan ran out of steam against the American, but again the judges' verdict came as shocker: Vikas was the winner!
Though the international boxing federation, following an appeal by US boxing officials, reviewed the decision and awarded the bout to the American' the new scoring system, where the scores of each boxer is the average of three of the five judges' combination which are closest, has come under the focus after a series of controversial results.
The new rules have affected television viewers the most with no live scoring of the bout on the screens. In the earlier system the judges used to press a button when a boxer landed a punch and the viewers could see the scores on their TV screens.
"I can't think of any pointscoring competition where the scores are not displayed simultaneously'" comments an English fan.
However, boxer Akhil Kumar gave his thumbs-up to new scoring system. "If they had this system in place earlier, India would have won her first Olympic medal in boxing in 2000," Akhil said, recalling the controversial exit of Gurcharan Singh in a quarterfinal bout of the Sydney Games.