Women‘s World Boxing Championships postponed to March 2022

AIBA Women‘s World Boxing Championships logo

LAUSANNE: The AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships, which was scheduled to be held in Istanbul, Turkey, from the 6th to 19th of December, has been postponed to March 2022.

AIBA stated that while it had been working hard to maintain the schedule of this event, the feedback received was that too many national federations were facing difficult situations and restrictions within their countries.

Due to this the AIBA board of directors, in consensus the Turkish National Federation, decided to postpone the championships.

The revised schedule of the event will be announced at a later date.

"We are aware that some teams have already started preparations for this event and will be disappointed. However, the safety and wellbeing of our athletes, officials and other stakeholders is priority, and therefore we cannot take the risk to proceed with the event," AIBA president Umar Kremlev said.

Meanwhile, with AIBA postponing the women’s world championship in Istanbul till March 2022, the Indian federation will, in all likelihood, hold trials to pick the team that was to comprise national champions and Olympic Bronze-winner Lovlina Borgohain earlier, PTI reports.

Borgohain’s direct selection had become a major controversy after it was opposed by national Gold winner and world youth champion Arundhati Choudhary, who has taken the matter to Delhi High Court.

The HC has issued a notice to the Boxing Federation of India, which has cited Borgohain’s world ranking of number three and Olympic performance as the grounds for her direct selection.

The postponement is also set to open up a window of opportunity for some other high-profile names such as six-time world champion M C Mary Kom and Simranjit Kaur, the newswire further reports.