Boxing representational image. Image credit: (C)FOTOPRESS/Ross Land.
Ukraine has become the latest nation to boycott the 2023 Women’s World Boxing Championship which is slated to take place in New Delhi from 15-31 March. Ukraine’s boxing federation (FBU) decided to boycott the world event in India in protest to International Boxing Association’s (IBA) decision to include Russian and Belarusian boxers, who will be allowed to compete with national flags and anthems, reported news agency Reuters.
The IBA is headed by Russian Umar Kremlev.
The FBU vice president Oleg Ilchenko has announced that Ukraine will also boycott the men’s championship which is scheduled to take place in Tashkent. Apart from Ukraine, nine other federations including the United States, Ireland and Britain have boycotted the women’s championship. Several federations have also decided to boycott the men’s event.
“Our answer is clear – our athletes and representatives of the Boxing Federation of Ukraine do not compete where representatives of the aggressor countries, namely Russia and Belarus, will compete,” Ilchenko told public broadcaster Suspline on Wednesday, as per Reuters.
He also added that Ukraine boxers will also boycott the 2024 Paris Games if Russian and Belarusian boxers take part in the summer Olympics.
“As long as the war is going on and as Russian troops are on the territory of our country … they will not participate.”
The IBA in October lifted the ban on Russian and Belarusian boxers from competing under their national flags which is against International Olympic Committee (IOC) guidelines that came after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Belarus has allowed Russia to launch attacks on Ukraine from its land.
The IBA has also declared the 2023 world championships as the main qualification events for the 2024 Paris Olympics despite IOC removing them from the qualification process as a result of governance issues. IOC is separately organising qualifying for the 2024 Games.
IOC had banned IBA in 2019 and the boxing body was not allowed to be involved in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics because of a host of issues including governance, finance, and referring faults.
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