BUDAPEST: Hungarian boxer Anna Luca Hamori, who will fight the Algerian embroiled in a gender eligibility row at the Paris Olympics, said Friday that her opponent’s inclusion was unfair.
Imane Khelif failed a gender eligibility test last year but is in the women’s boxing competition in Paris and will face Hamori on Saturday in the quarter-finals of the 66kg category.
“In my humble opinion I don’t think it’s fair that this contestant can compete in the women’s category,” the 23-year-old Hamori wrote on Facebook.
“But I cannot concern myself with that now, I cannot change it, it’s life.”
Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting were disqualified from the 2023 world championships in New Delhi, run by the IBA, but both competed at the Tokyo Games in 2021 in the women’s competition and are also in Paris.
The boxing in the French capital is overseen by the International Olympic Committee, not the IBA.
The Algerian boxer’s inclusion sparked a furor after she scored a 46-second win against Italian rival Angela Carini on Thursday.
Neither Khelif nor Lin is known to identify as transgender.
The upcoming fight has caused outrage in Hungary.
Previously Hamori had defended Khelif’s participation, telling Hungary’s state news agency MTI that “if they let her compete here, they must know she’s a woman.”
Hamori is the Central European country’s first woman boxer at the Olympics.
The Hungarian Olympic Committee said it had reached out to the IOC over Khelif’s inclusion, saying it was a “fundamental requirement for equal opportunities for women that only competitors with just female biological characteristics... should be allowed to compete in the women’s field.”
“If the Olympic rules for participation in boxing do not fully guarantee this, the rules should be reviewed and, if necessary, amended,” it said.
The head of the Hungarian Olympic Committee has “initiated immediate consultations” with the IOC’s director of sport to “clarify the situation,” according to the statement.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams said the Olympic body’s eligibility criteria was based on the gender indicated on the boxers’ passports, but acknowledged that it’s “not a black and white issue.”
Earlier this week, the Bulgarian Olympic Committee expressed its indignation at the participation of Khelif and Lin at the Games and said it intended to lodge a formal complaint with the IOC.
Hungarian facing Algeria boxer at center of Olympic gender row says not fair
https://arab.news/jhvy2
Hungarian facing Algeria boxer at center of Olympic gender row says not fair
- “In my humble opinion I don’t think it’s fair that this contestant can compete in the women’s category,” the 23-year-old Hamori wrote on Facebook
- “But I cannot concern myself with that now, I cannot change it, it’s life“
Two own goals save Arsenal blushes against Wolves
LONDON: Arsenal avoided a major embarrassment against Premier League bottom club Wolves on Saturday, benefiting from two own goals — one in stoppage time — to win 2-1 and move five points clear of Manchester City.
Manager Mikel Arteta admitted that his team had struggled to create clear chances and that the win should have been much more comfortable.
But he said that the manner of the victory would give the team a major boost.
“That gives you belief that regardless of how the game goes, you can always find a solution to win it,” he told TNT Sports.
“But now we’re going to have a clean week. We need to start to train certain aspects slowly, because if you don’t train them, you start to deteriorate a little bit.”
Arteta’s men were blunt in the first half, failing to muster a single shot on target as Gabriel Martinelli wasted a clutch of chances.
The Arsenal boss made three changes shortly before the hour mark, bringing on Leandro Trossard, Martin Odegaard and Mikel Merino for Martinelli, Eberechi Eze and Martin Zubimendi.
The Gunners mounted wave after wave of attacks, and Declan Rice’s shot midway through the second half — their first on target — was well saved by Sam Johnstone.
But in the 70th minute the sheer weight of pressure told to the enormous relief of an impatient and nervy Emirates crowd.
Johnstone flicked Bukayo Saka’s corner onto a post as he scrambled to reach the ball but it rebounded back onto his arm and into the net for an own goal.
Gabriel Jesus came on for Viktor Gyokores for his first home match after 11 months out injured.
Astonishingly, Wolves pulled level in the 90th minute, when Mateus Mane’s flat cross was headed in by Nigerian striker Tolu Arokodare.
But just as the Arsenal fans contemplated a damaging draw, the Gunners benefited from a second own goal.
Saka delivered a perfect cross which Jesus attacked but the ball was diverted into his own net by Wolves defender Yerson Mosquera.
Winless Wolves, with a ninth league defeat in a row, have mustered just two points from their 16 games so far and are on course for the worst season in Premier League history.
Pep Guardiola’s City travel to in-form Crystal Palace on Sunday seeking to close the gap to Arsenal, who have not won the Premier League since 2004.
