World Boxing mulls over changing qualification rules for Olympics

The boxing fraternity in India is slowly coming to terms with the new qualifying pathway for major events, including the Olympics.

World Boxing, the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), is toying with the idea of doing away with the qualifying tournaments for the Olympics.

All the major tournaments, including the World Championships, World Cups and the upcoming World Cup Finals in Greater Noida next month, have ranking points. Winners of the Finals, which will be held from November 14 to 21, will garner a maximum 300 points.

World Boxing has discussed with its member countries about this plan, however it has not made it final yet. The executive director of the Boxing Federation of India (BFI), Colonel Arun Malik, told The Tribune on the sidelines of the logo launch for the World Cup Finals that nothing has been decided yet.

“Our international federation had a chat with us about changing the qualifying pathways and qualifying through ranking points is being seriously looked at,” Malik said. “We are in talks and as of now the qualifying pathway has not been formally changed but like I said they are in talks so we will need to wait for a final decision,” he added.

Lovlina out

Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain will miss the tournament as she has undergone a nose surgery. Saweety Boora has dropped down to the 75kg category to take her place. Parveen Hooda, who was banned for whereabouts failure and had to sit out of the 2024 Olympics, makes a comeback to the team.

Meanwhile, the men’s boxing team is led by Hitesh Gulia, who won a gold medal in the World Boxing Cup in Brazil in April. Gulia is keen to do well in the tournament, which is coming soon after a disastrous World Championships where the team failed to win any medal.

“It is not as if our performances dipped significantly. In my case I was winning my bout but got punched on a counter and lost the bout. Had it not been for that punch, I would have won. Decisions in a couple of bouts that were closely fought went against us. These things happen. No point in talking about these things,” he said.

“We have been training hard in Patiala since October 1. We are all motivated to do well as a lot of ranking points are on offer which may play a big role in qualifying for the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. I am confident we will win more next month,” he added.