Top Story Replay: Boxing Federation Comes Out Swinging

(ATR) The International Boxing Association attempts to put its best foot forward as the bell rings for the AIBA Men’s and Women’s Youth World Boxing Championships in Kielce, Poland.

The 52-nation international tournament is the first major competition under the new AIBA president Umar Kremlev, who was elected leader of the embattled federation in December 2020. Additionally, Hungarian Olympic champion István Kovács recently stepped in as secretary general on March 22, as AIBA tries to stabilize its governance under close watch by the IOC, which suspended the federation in May 2019.

The two-week youth championships, formerly called the Cadet World Championships and first contested in 1979, are being staged in Poland for the first time. The event is being held at the Hala Legionow Sports Complex with more than 400 boxers entering the ring with medals at stake in an equal 10 weight divisions for both men and women.

Kremlev opened the event at a Grand Ceremony without spectators and with limited guests due to COVID-19 safety measures.

‘Today our world is suffering not [an] easy situation, COVID pandemic," Kremlev said. "A lot of sports competitions worldwide were canceled. Our young boxers were left without any possibility to compete. Today Poland is conducting AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships giving an opportunity to young people to fight."

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In AIBA’s bid to ensure integrity in refereeing and judging while being more transparent, its formalized bout review procedure, introduced at the senior level in 2019, and live public scoring are being implemented for the first time at a major youth event.

Regarding the live scoring procedures, scores from each round by each judge will be publicly displayed after the first two rounds. Additionally, at the end of round three, the final scores will be publicly displayed after the official announcement of results.

In terms of the bout review process, the team manager or head coach of the losing boxer will have 15 minutes after a decision is announced to submit their protest and complete the paperwork for it in the next 30 minutes.

With five judges per match, decisions with the scores 5-0 or 4-1 are not reviewable, the only possible option is a split decision of 3-2, an AIBA statement explained.

If the technical delegate determines, after consulting the Bout Review Jury, that the protest should be allowed to proceed, the bout will the be reviewed by the Jury – the observer, the referee evaluator and the judge evaluator.

The jury's decision must be unanimous and will be final.

The new secretary general Kovács said he is looking forward to his cooperation with Kremlev and getting the AIBA ship back on course.

"AIBA is undergoing a period of global reforms," Kovács said recently. "All of them are necessary for boxing to develop as a sport loved by millions of people around the globe so that our athletes and coaches show the best results in international competitions at all levels.

"I see that the new AIBA leadership is heading in the right direction and is committed to working with full dedication to support and reinforce this course of positive change."

In December, prior to winning the AIBA presidency, Kremlev told Around the Rings "the biggest challenge for AIBA is to complete all the tasks to bring AIBA back to the Olympic family in time for the Paris Olympics 2024."

The Russian president cited resolving AIBA’s financial crisis as a top priority, while also noting "it will be equally important to address other challenges, such as boxing development, a clear anti-doping policy and fair refereeing."

The AIBA Youth World Championships were initially scheduled for November 2020 before being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event is now moving forward, taking place from April 10-24 without spectators, despite Poland recently announcing a lockdown due to another wave of COVID-19.

To allow the championships to be contested, the Polish government also published a measure declaring competitive sport exempt from COVID-19 sanitary restrictions in December.

Host Poland, Russia, Kazakhstan and India are all sending the maximum amount of 20 boxers.

Written by Brian Pinelli

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