Imane Khelif’s next opponent has been confirmed, with Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori to step in the ring with the Algerian at the Olympic Games.
Boxing at this year’s Games in Paris been marred by conflicting gender eligibility rules in Paris, with Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting allowed to compete despite being disqualified from last year’s world championships.
The pair failed unspecified gender eligibility tests and were deemed to have a competitive advantage, but the International Olympic Committee have allowed both to compete.
That decision has sparked outrage among the boxing community and it came to a head on Thursday when Italy’s Angela Carini withdrew from her bout against Khelif after just 46 seconds, having felt the power of two of her punches.
She cried in the ring before leaving.
‘She felt pain in the nose and said to me, ‘I don’t want to fight more’,’ her Italian coach Emanuele Renzini told reporters in broken English.
‘People say, ‘Don’t go, it’s dangerous, she’s a man’. Maybe it’s this (why she quit).
‘It’s not my decision, It’s a difficult decision. I don’t want to be the CEO at the moment.’
Imane Khelif will fight Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori in the next round at the Olympics
The Algerian has been at the centre of a storm surrounding her participation, having failed a gender eligibility test for last year’s world championships
Khelif won a silver medal at the International Boxing Association’s 2022 world championships and will next face Williamson, if she’s able to beat Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori in Thursday’s afternoon session.
The 25-year-old entered the ring at the North Paris Arena to a chorus of cheers, but the crowd was confused by the bout’s sudden end.
Khelif then dodged media as she briskly exited the arena, while Carini fought through tears to explain it was the injury, and not a protest, that forced her sudden abandonment.
‘I felt a strong pain in my nose and … could no longer finish the match,’ she said.
‘I am heartbroken because I am a fighter, my father taught me to be a warrior.
‘I felt all the controversy that there has been … that was not something that stopped me or blocked me mentally.’Regardless of all the controversy that there was, I never cared, I went ahead and I just wanted to win.’
Aussie star Williamson could have been next to face Khelif, but she lost her bout against Hungarian rival Hamori by split decision in Paris.
The fight between Khelif and Hamori will take place on Saturday afternoon at 4.22pm.
She will face Hamori, who defeated Australia’s Marissa Williamson on Thursday
Khelif won her bout on Thursday inside 46 seconds after her opponent withdrew
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