The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Friday that the Asia and Oceania Olympic 2020 Olympics boxing qualifiers that were scheduled to be held in Wuhan, China originally have been shifted to Jordan after the fears over the new flu-like coronavirus. The IOC issued a statement on Friday which informed that the qualification event would take place in Amman from March 3 to 11.
The IOC statement read, “The event, originally planned to take place in Wuhan, China, from February 3-14, was rescheduled after the joint decision by the BTF and the Chinese Olympic Committee to cancel the competition due to the developments regarding the coronavirus outbreak reported in the Chinese city.”
The statement further informed that the Boxing Task Force of IOC after reviewing all alternatives gave a go-ahead to the proposal by the Jordan Olympic Committee.
“After a careful review of all alternatives, the BTF approved the proposal of the Jordan Olympic Committee today, in order to confirm the competition dates and location as soon as possible, in the best interest of the athletes preparing for the qualifier,” said the statement by IOC.
Boxing as a sport has been suffering a lot especially after the world governing body of the sport International Boxing Association (AIBA) was suspended by IOC in June and stripped of the right to organize the tournament in Tokyo 2020.
It is to be noted that the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) had also shown interest in hosting the qualifiers. As far as the preparation of Indian pugilists is concerned Indian boxers will have to plan their preparations afresh after the International Olympic Council (IOC) Boxing Task Force (BTF) rescheduled the Olympic qualifiers from March 3 to 11.
A BFI official has also informed that the teams of France and Russia have been asked to come to Delhi for preparations of Olympic qualifiers. The official has further informed that while France has accepted the invitation, Russia is also expected to say yes. At the same time, the men’s team is currently preparing with Australia and Italy in Ballari, Karnataka. In February, the boxers were scheduled to go to Colorado Spring (US) for preparations, but now the tour will have to be postponed.
As the first Olympic qualifiers have been shifted it also cut shorts the gap between the first and second qualifiers in Paris in May. In such a situation, the BFI and the team management believe that the challenges have become stronger. However, BFI also believes that now women boxers have got more time to prepare.
