40 lBOXING NEWSlJUNE 27, 2019 http://www.boxingnewsonline.netVESTEDINTEREST
Meet the personalities
at the heart of the sport
With JOHN DENNENAMATEURS
CLARIT Y AT LAST
Aya Mahmoud Medancy and Marius
Vizer, the president of the International
Judo Federation. They have also said that
a boxing technical group will assist them
on an administrative level but pointed
out that neither former members of
AIBA’s leadership or “professional boxing
leagues” will be represented in the task
force. So the appeals emanating from the
likes of the WBA seemingly have fallen
on deaf ears.
Crucially for the
boxers and the world’s
Olympic programmes
the weight divisions
have been confirmed. As
expected there will be
five women’s categories
at Tokyo 2020, with 57kgs
and 69kgs being added
to the existing Olympic
weights 51kgs, 60kgs and
75kgs. The number of men’s divisions
will be reduced from 10 to eight and the
news light-flyweights and lightweights
have feared has come true. 49kgs and
60kgs will no longer exist. Lightweight
and light-welter will be merged to 63kgs.
Light-flyweights looking to box in theOlympics will have to move up to 52kgs.
Bantamweights get an extra kilo as their
division will become featherweight at
57kgs. Welter (69kgs), middle (75kgs),
light-heavy (81kgs), heavy (91kgs) and
super-heavyweight (91&kgs) remain
Olympic events and remain unchanged.
In further good news for female boxers
the IOC have revised the distribution of
places between men and women. The
last Olympics had 286 boxers, 250 men
and 36 women. At Tokyo
2020 there will be the
same number of boxers
in total, with 186 of
them male and 100
female.
We also now know
what the qualification
process will be.
There will be two
Olympic qualification
opportunities, to take place in 2020.
There will be continental qualification
events that need to happen between
January and the end of April of next year.
The last chance will be a world qualifier,
to be held next May. The exact dates
and locations need to be confirmed but
interestingly the IOC want host cities for
qualifiers to be selected from countries
that have hosted recent or upcoming
Olympic Games. Considering the success
of London 2012, that should put the UK
is a good position to secure one of these
events.
All these proposals from the IOC’s
Executive Board will need to be
approved, but there is little reason to
think any will be rejected.
Chair of the task force, Morinari
Watanabe said, “These recommendations
aim to keep athletes at the heart of
the Olympic Games, protecting their
experience and their right to compete.
“They also fully respect the principles
of inclusivity and universality, increase
the gender balance and establish fair
participation criteria for athletes across
the world, ensuring a diverse and
comprehensive representation.”
It is unfortunate that, in order to
increase the quota for women’s places,
the number of places for male boxers
had to be reduced. But given the fate of
the entire boxing programme for 2020
was in the balance it is a relief that now
at least we have clarity, and the Olympic
sport has a future.GNORANCE has not
been bliss. But there
is, at last, a plan for
boxing at the next
Olympic Games, and
a clearer pathway
has now been set
out for reaching
Tokyo 2020.
With AIBA
plunging into
chaos after Rio
2016, eventually,
earlier this year,
the International
Olympic Committee
announced that the
sport’s governing
body would be
suspended from administering boxing
at the next Olympic Games as well as
the qualification events for Tokyo 2020.
They appointed a special task force to
take these over from AIBA, headed up by
Japan’s Morinari Watanabe, an outsider
to boxing who is the president of the
International Gymnastics Federation.
Joining him on the task force now will be
William Frederick, Willi Kaltschmitt Lujan,The IOC
have a plan
I
‘WE AIM TO
KEEP ATHLETES
AT THE HEART
OF THE
OLYMPICS’
John
Dennen
@BoxingNewsJD
Amateur EditorLONDON GAMES:
Could Britain be
targeted as a
potential host for an
Olympic qualifier?
Photo: ACTION IMAGES