CHENNAI: The World Championships have been historically a massive competition for amateur-level athletes across sports. However, there's some uncertainty surrounding the upcoming boxing World Championships in India (women's event) and Uzbekistan (men's championship) mainly due to the fact that the events are not recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and do not offer quotas for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Despite this, the International Boxing Association (IBA) has confirmed that those two events will be Olympic qualifying events.
USA and Ireland, citing IBA's existing issues, had decided against sending their pugilists for the said events. More have taken that stance including the Polish Boxing Association. That has meant some nations, with high ambitions, would potentially be missing out on quality bouts ahead of Olympic qualifying events later designed by the IOC.
"The announcement of the IBA Olympic Qualification System (OQS) for Paris 2024, is a necessary step to protect our athletes as the IOC proposed qualification process consisting of one competition is not acceptable and fair for the athletes. To exclude World Champions from the upcoming Women's and Men's World Boxing Championships in New Delhi, India and Tashkent, Uzbekistan from qualifying for Paris 2024 is not acceptable and against the principles of sport and boxing," IBA said in a release on Monday.
"The upcoming IBA World Boxing Championships in New Delhi and Tashkent will be the main qualification events for Paris 2024."
The Women's World Championships in New Delhi is set to be held from March 15 to 26 while the men's equivalent is scheduled to be held from May 1 to 14. The world body is going by a qualification system which was initially approved by the IOC Executive Board in April last year. The IBA is willing to work with the IOC and further stressed on the importance of the aforementioned world meets.
"The IBA reiterates its openness to cooperate with the IOC for the benefit of boxing, its athletes, and the stability and quality of the Olympic Games product. In addition, no other qualification process for Paris 2024 will be accepted by the IBA and the boxing community other than the following: Women's World Boxing Championships, Men's World Boxing Championships, and the final last chance to qualify open event taking place in May 2024, " the release added.
Given that it is currently under IOC suspension list, IBA does not have the authority to decide on qualifying events. The IOC Executive Board had approved the qualification system last September. After close collaboration with boxing experts, the IOC EB had come up with a qualification system based on direct qualification through select competitions. The continental multisport events including Asian Games in China was also named as a qualifying event.
It will be interesting to see if countries, who are boycotting the event, change their mind. The IOC had said that IBA will be part of the Olympic programme if they follow reforms recommended by them for good governance.
New foreign coach
Meanwhile, Dmitry Dimitruk has joined the India team as foreign coach. Dimitruk, who has worked with high performance director Bernard Dunne in Ireland, will oversee all teams. They had a successful stint with the Ireland team that won medals at marquee events.