Sports
HUNGARIAN boxer Anna Luca Hamori says she doesn’t “think it’s fair” that her next opponent, Imane Khelif, is taking part in the women’s category at the Olympics.
Hamori, 23, will face the 25-year-old Algerian in the quarter-finals of the 66kg competition on Saturday.
Khelif is one of two athletes – along with Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting – who have been cleared to compete having been disqualified from last year’s Women’s World Championships after they were said to have failed gender eligibility tests.
The Hungarian Boxing Association has protested against Khelif’s participation at Paris 2024, and the Hungarian Olympic Committee requested talks with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over the issue.
Kheireddine Barbari, the head of the Algerian delegation at the Paris Olympics, said the Algerian Olympic Committee had filed a complaint with the IOC over the “immoral” campaign against Khelif.
Hamori wrote on social media: “In my humble opinion, I don’t think it’s fair that this contestant can compete in the women’s category.
“But I cannot concern myself with that now. I cannot change it, it’s life.
“I can promise you one thing… I will do my best to win and I will fight as long as I can!”
Hamori has beaten Ireland’s Grainne Walsh and Australian Marissa Williamson to reach the quarter-finals.
She has previously fought at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games and was a silver medallist in the 66kg class at the 2022 European Under-22 Championships.
‘Not good for women’s boxing’
Lin’s next opponent also criticised the fact that she has to face a boxer whose participation at the Olympics has been questioned.
In the quarter-finals, Lin faces Svetlana Kamenova Staneva of Bulgaria on Sunday morning.
“With the situation in this category, which, you know, people are talking about all over Facebook, the internet and media, this is not good for women’s boxing,” Staneva said.
A Bulgarian Boxing Federation spokesperson added: “We believe that athletes should be placed on an equal level in any competition, especially when it comes to the Olympic Games.
“In the case of Imane Khalif and Lin Yu-ting, we see no such equal treatment and strongly oppose their participation.”
Both Lin and Khelif made it through to the Olympic quarter-finals in comfortable fashion.
Khelif beat Angela Carini in the first round of competition as the Italian abandoned their bout after 46 seconds.
Carini said on Thursday she ended the fight to “preserve her life”, but apologised to her opponent on Friday, saying “if the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision”.
Lin, 28, dominated Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova in the 57kg category on Friday.
The Russia-led International Boxing Association (IBA), which carried out the eligibility tests last year, said Khelif and Lin “failed to meet the eligibility criteria for participating in the women’s competition, as set and laid out in the IBA regulations”.
Lin and Khelif were banned, the IBA has said, “to uphold the level of fairness and utmost integrity of the competition”. Lin was stripped of a bronze medal at last year’s World Championships.
Last June, the IBA was stripped of its status as the sport’s world governing body by the IOC.
The IOC, which defines gender by how it is recorded on an athlete’s passport, said the pair were “suddenly disqualified without any due process”.
Photo Caption: Khelif is scheduled to fight Hungary’s Hamori on Saturday
BBC
3rd August, 2024.
C.E.
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