2024-08-15 08:17:50
The head coach of our national men’s boxing team, Joel Arate, gave way to the emotions accumulated from the Olympic Games in Paris.
At a press conference, he tearfully apologized that the medal won by Javier Ibanez in the category up to 57 kilograms was not gold, but bronze. Both he and the rest of the headquarters and management of the federation cannot be really happy with the result achieved because of the refereeing factor in the French capital.
“I am sorry and apologize to the president of the federation Krasimir Ininski. I promised both him and Bulgaria a gold medal, but we are only returning with a bronze. You all saw what happened. It looks like Javier will have to knock out his opponents in Los Angeles to keep the win from him. This is the only way and we will work in this direction,” said Arate emotionally.
He is confident that Bulgaria has a very high-quality and young team that is yet to develop its potential. “We will work even harder so that we can have more boxers in Los Angeles to bring more medals to Bulgaria. The potential is very big, we saw it in Paris, but we have guys who are 20-22 years old and they are yet to please us because they have serious qualities,” said Joel Arate.
The president of our federation, Krasimir Ininski, also admitted that he cried after Javier’s semi-final.
“I will not hide, I am not ashamed. I cried in the arms of Hristo Stoichkov. And honestly, it’s hard for me to talk to the boys and girls after seeing them robbed.
But these things, these injustices, judges, men-women, they bring us together even more and make us stronger. I believe boxing will remain in Los Angeles, most likely under different management, and I hope they clean up the refereeing and corruption. Because we see that we are being robbed, but there is no one to complain to, there is no VAR, as is the case with football. And yet – a big thank you, to both men and women. Four of our boxers are in the top five at the Olympic Games, out of five participants. And this is not a small thing, but we know that we deserved more, and that hurts us,” Ininsky said.
Our bronze medalist Javier Ibanez added that he thanked the audience at the stadium in the Roland Garros complex, who supported him, as well as everyone in Bulgaria, who in the last two weeks motivated him even more to work for gold after 4 years. “I know what happened in this semi-final. The audience felt it, 10 thousand people told me their opinion. I promised the gold, but the goal is another and I will pursue it in Los Angeles,” said our national.