(OCT 31) The International
Boxing Association (AIBA) has set new dates for the 2016 Women’s
World Elite championships in Astana, Kazakhstan much to the
displeasure of some of its own National Federations who say they
were not consulted on the matter.
The championships were due from
Jan 24-Feb 6 but will now take place between May 19-27.Bearing
in mind that boxers of most nations have been preparing for the
original January date this seriously disrupts their training
schedule and as a result it is understood that several countries
are now contemplating delaying their own Elite championships.
The United States for example have been holding Olympic trials
in Memphis which are due to end this weekend.
Having been contacted by WBAN, an
AIBA spokesperson advised that ‘this is a logistical decision
between AIBA and Local Organizing Committee in Astana’.
Many of its own Federations had already set dates in October and
November 2015 for their own Olympic trials and/or National Elite
championships and WBAN understands that several countries are
deeply unhappy that the dates were arbitrarily changed to a much
later date.
At the time of writing no official Press Release has been issued
by the AIBA though that new dates are shown on the AIBA’s
website’s calendar section and it is understood that the AIBA
have mailed their own members explaining that boxers first go to
their qualifiers and later onto the World’s but with a twist.
If a boxer wins the Confederation title they can also be sent by
their local association to the Worlds OR that national
association can choose to send a different boxer to the worlds
and she too could qualify for Rio. That spells ‘big trouble’ in
most people’s eyes.
First and foremost it appears that the national association
would then have to choose which boxer of the two qualified to
send so who would decide? A country’s Head Coach/National
Association OR by means of another box-off? In addition let us
look at another angle.
If I, for example, had already qualified in my Continent, then I
(or another boxer) goes to the World Championships, then I have
the power to eliminate boxers from the tournament and end their
ability to qualify for the Olympics.
Crazy situation. Did they really think through all of the
potential consequences? The European Confederation event is
scheduled to end in Istanbul, Turkey only on 1st May and yet the
boxers who will have spent a long week of boxing incorporating
several bouts will have but two weeks to recover, train again
for the Worlds and recover from any knocks or bruises received
in Istanbul.
A meeting of the Confederations in Asia took place this week
during Kazakhstan’s Astana Cup selection trials event when among
the subjects discussed was the recent Men’s world championships
in Doha. One can only surmise that at that meeting some factors
emerged which resulted in the AIBA delaying the women’s event.
It is likely that problems were identified which led to the
postponement of the Worlds.
What these “logistical” reasons are remains a mystery but if the
LOC have been having problems with dates or venue or other
factors then these should surely have been identified at a much
earlier date.
The Worlds & Olympic qualifiers apart here are the dates for the
various Confederation championships as at today – unless any
further changes will now be made. If so we will bring this to
your attention as soon as we know.
AOB Olympic Games Qualifiers (men & women): nb: in all cases
women only means the 3 Olympic weights.
AOB American March 8-20 Buenos Aires, Argentina
AOB African March 9-20 Yaounde,Cameroon
AOB Asia/Oceania March 23-April 3 Qian’an, China
AOB European April 20-May 1 Istanbul, Turkey
APB-WSB (men only) May 13-22 Sofia,Bulgaria
AIBA Women’s Worlds May 19-27 Astana,Kazakhstan
AOB Men only (World) June 7-19 Baku,Azerbaijan
Rio Olympic Games August 5-21 Rio de Janeiro,Brazil
