Great Britain to boycott IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in March | Boxing News

GB Boxing will not send a team next month’s IBA’s Women’s World Championships in New Delhi.

By boycotting the event Britain is joining the USA and Ireland who have also announced that they will not participate.

It comes with boxing’s future in the Olympic Games in doubt as the sport is currently excluded from the 2028 Olympic programme due to issues with corruption and the governance of world governing body, the International Boxing Association, as well as the IBA’s decision to allow Russian and Belarussian boxers to compete under their national flags despite the ongoing war in Ukraine.

In a statement, GB Boxing said: “The decision reflects ongoing concerns about the future of boxing’s place on the Olympic programme and the recent move by IBA to allow boxers from Russia and Belarus to compete under their national flags, which contravenes resolutions passed by the IOC [International Olympic Committee] in February and December 2022.

“This has put further distance between IBA and the Olympic movement in addition to the significant, longstanding issues over sporting integrity, governance, transparency and financial management which the IOC has asked IBA to address to protect boxing’s place on the Olympic programme.

“GB Boxing condemns the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has solidarity with the people, boxers, coaches and officials of Ukraine.”

There is also a Men’s World Championships coming up this year and GB will decide down the line as to whether they will send a team.

“GB Boxing’s participation at the IBA Men’s World Boxing Championships in May 2023 is under review and the board will make a decision on this closer to the event,” the spokesperson said.

Because the IOC has already suspended IBA from administering Olympic boxing for the 2024 Games, there will be a qualification event later this year that will be run by a separate task force.

Great Britain will compete in that.

“GB Boxing is committed to delivering the best possible preparation for our boxers in the build-up to Paris 2024 and we will continue to work with national federations and tournament organisers to provide training and competition opportunities in advance of the Olympic qualifying events that begin in June 2023 with the European Games in Poland,” they said.

Boxing has been a highly successful sport for Britain. At the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 GB secured its best boxing medal haul in a hundred years with six medals, including the gold medal triumphs of Lauren Price and Galal Yafai.