By Aadi Nair
PARIS (Reuters) -The Hungarian Boxing Federation has contacted the country’s Olympic Committee (MOB) and the IOC to object to Luca Anna Hamori’s fight with Imane Khelif as a gender dispute rages, the governing body said on Friday.
Hamori is due to face Khelif, a silver medallist at the 2022 worlds, in the Olympic quarter-finals on Saturday.
Khelif, whose participation in the Games was permitted by the IOC, won her welterweight round of 16 bout after her Italian opponent Angela Carini abandoned their fight after 46 seconds, citing intense pain in her nose.
Carini’s withdrawal drew reactions from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and author J. K. Rowling.
On Thursday, Hungary’s Hamori said she was not scared of Khelif, adding that she would not pull out of her fight like Carini did.
“In the last few hours, our federation has notified the Hungarian Olympic Committee of our objections to the participation of the Algerian athlete, who was disqualified from the 2023 World Championships after a failed biological test result,” the federation said.
The Algerian Boxing Federation and Algerian Olympic Committee did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Khelif and Taiwan’s double world champion Lin Yu-ting were cleared to fight in Paris after the IOC last year stripped the IBA of its status as boxing’s governing body over governance issues, and took charge of the Paris 2024 boxing competition.
“The MOB is also looking after the interests of the Hungarian athlete and is therefore continuously examining the means it can use to protect Hamori’s rights to fair competition under the rules in force,” the federation said.
“The MOB president has initiated immediate consultations with the IOC Director of Sport to clarify the situation.”
Taiwan’s Lin won her featherweight round of 16 bout on Friday against Uzbekistan’s Sidora Turdibekova on points by unanimous decision.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair, additional reporting by Boldizsar Gyori; Editing by Alison Williams and Ed Osmond)
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