Highlights:
- Olympic Gold medallist, Lovlina Borgohain, to contest for a place in AIBA’s Athletes Committee alongside five-time Asian champion, Shiva Thapa.
- The election for Asia’s representative would be carried out through voting at the World Boxing Championship.
Boxing marvels, Lovlina Borgohain and Shiva Thapa, from Assam, compete to be Asia’s representatives AIBA (International Boxing Association’s) Athletes Committee. The final verdict shall be announced through voting during world championships. Bronze medallist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Lovlina Borgohain, along with five-time Asian medallist and youngest Indian boxer to qualify for the Olympics, Shiva Thapa will be striving to secure a position at the AIBA’s Athlete’s committee as Asia’s Representatives.
Shiva Thapa is presently competing in the 63.5 kg category at the men’s boing world championships that is underway in Belgrade. He had earlier secured a bronze in the event. Correspondingly, Olympic Bronze medallist, Lovlina Borgohain will be participating in the women’s boxing world championships that are lined up in December in Turkey.
Lovlina had formerly won two bronze medals in the marquee tournament. 34 nominations were proposed from five confederations, of which, 27 were found to be qualified by its ethics committee. The selection of either of the two would ascertain India’s presence in the panel consecutively. Former world champion in the lightweight class, Sarita Devi, from Manipur, was elected unopposed to AIBA’s first-ever athletes commission representing the Asian bloc. She was chosen amid the tenure of the then-interim president of AIBA, Mohamed Moustahsane.
The Asian bloc’s competitor’s comprised of three women and four men. Borgohain will face former North Korean world champion and two-time Asian medallist, Pang Chol Mih and Kazakhstan’s two-time world champion and Asian gold medallist, Nayzm Kyzaibay.
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By the same token, Shiva Thapa would confront Uzbekistani world champion, Bakhodir Jalolov, Pakistan’s Awais Ali Khan as well as Kazakhstan’s two-time world and Asian championship medallist, Ablaikhan Zhussupov.
The AIBA revealed that the Athletes Committee would comprise 10 people, together with the newly elected Chair and Vice-Chair becoming the voting members of AIBA’s Board of Directors.
A male and a female member from each confederation will be chosen by the registered boxers attending the world championships. A secret ballot would be employed at every election. According to the world body, the final decision of picking electronic or paper ballots would be taken by the AIBA.
The members of the Athletes Committee would be serving a term till 2025 world championships, a much longer tenure compared to the former panel. In the course of their term, committee members would work to ensure apt representation of the perspectives and opinions of boxers.
AIBA President, Umar Kremlev said that “one particular task of new members of the committee would be to aid and reinforce AIBA’s mission of developing and promoting the sport of boxing everywhere”.
“Given the challenges that are being faced at the moment, there is a dire need for people who are willing to fight for a brighter future for our beloved sport of Boxing. And the ones who can fight better than boxers,’’ he added.
He also mentioned that every individual’s input at AIBA is considered valuable. It is vital to turn our attention to what the boxers have to say since the whole mission is carried out on behalf of the boxers and the people who support them.