A member of the Nigeria women’s boxing team barred from the World Championships in Liverpool because she missed a deadline for a new genetic sex test has told BBC Sport it is “heartbreaking”.
Blessing Oraekwe, who had been due to compete in the 75kg category, said World Boxing should pay compensation to cover the costs of her team’s wasted journey to the UK.
The international governing body for amateur boxing said in May that women wanting to compete in the event, which started on Thursday, would have to have mandatory sex testing under its gender eligibility policy.
However, on the championship’s opening day, the French boxing federation revealed that its women’s team had suffered “a profound injustice” by being excluded because samples had not been processed by a laboratory in time “despite guarantees” by World Boxing.
It said its athletes were being “punished for a bureaucratic failure and a policy that was communicated far too late.”
It then emerged that 12 fighters across five nations had been barred, including three of Nigeria’s women’s team.
“I feel so sad,” said Oraekwe.
“It was heartbreaking for me because my plan was to come here and dominate in the ring and take the gold for my country. I know how I worked so hard for this.
And I know how hard it was for my country, and the Nigerian boxing federation, [who] gathered money for me, and the other boxers, to be here.”
tests.
Neither Khelif nor Lin has entered this year’s event.
The pair made headlines at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where they won gold medals after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) permitted them to compete.
The IOC said competitors were eligible for the women’s division in Paris if their passports said they were female.
Boxing has undergone a major restructure in recent years after the IBA was stripped of its powers for failing to implement reforms.
The IOC oversaw governance of boxing at the Paris Olympics before World Boxing was granted provisional recognition as the sport’s international governing federation by the IOC in February.
