ATHENS, Aug. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- An outraged home crowd booed the referee and even threw garbage at the arena in the Peristeri Olympic Boxing Hall here Tuesday evening as a Greek boxer failed to enter the semifinals of the 81kg category in the Athens Olympics boxing tournament.

    Cheered on by thousands of wild home spectators, who had made the boxing hall most crowded since the beginning of the tournament,Greek light heavyweight Elias Pavlidis overwhelmed his Egyptian rival Ahmed Ismail from the very beginning and earned a 19-12 leadon points in the first two rounds.

    However, after taking a hard blow from the Egyptian, the left eye corner of the Greek broke and kept on bleeding since the latter half of the second round. When there was still one minute and 38 seconds remaining in the third round, the referee, according to medical expert's examination, stopped the match and declared the Egyptian as the winner.

    The Egyptian went down on his knees on the arena for his good luck, while the extremely disappointed Greek boxer, said to be a piano teacher with high popularity, threw one of his gloves onto the floor.

    Despite the strong reaction from the Greek spectators, the referee maintained his ruling. Most of the spectators quit the hall immediately though there was still one quarterfinal match of 81kg to play.

    The winner of the quarterfinals will get at least a bronze medal as the Olympic boxing tournament offers two bronze medals in each category. Enditem