READY BUT WAITING
The boxers preparing for the first Olympic qualifier will have to drastically rearrange their plans
T THE first qualification event of the new Olympic cycle was due to take place in Wuhan from February 3-14. But with the Chinese city on lockdown due to the outbreak of the coronavirus the boxing qualifier, for the Asia and Oceania regions, there had to be cancelled.
Wuhan is a city of over 10 million people and the authorities there have suspended public transport, as well planes and trains from leaving and entering. People in the city are being advised to avoid crowds and public gatherings. Other cities in China have also been put on lock down as over a hundred people are known to have died from the new virus with thousands believed to be infected.
Hundreds of boxers across Asia, Australia and New Zealand were training towards that February 3 date and were placed in limbo as they had to wait for the qualifier to be rescheduled. The
International Olympic Committee’s Boxing Task Force, which is handling both the qualifiers and the Tokyo 2020 boxing tournament while AIBA is suspended, announced that this qualifier will be rescheduled for March 3-11 and have now decided that Amman in Jordan will be the new host city.
Concerns over coronavirus also saw the professional world title fight between Jose Ramirez and Viktor Postol, due to take place in another city in China, called off.
The Boxing Task Force said in a statement that they “would like to thank the Chinese Olympic Committee and Wuhan’s Local Organizing Committee for their support and outstanding efforts in dealing with this extraordinary situation.”
They later added, “After a careful review of all alternatives, the BTF [Boxing Task Force] approved the proposal of the National Olympic Committee of Jordan today, in order to confirm the competition dates and location as soon as possible, in the best interest of athletes preparing for the qualifier.”
Featherweight Amy Andrew had been in camp in Thailand with the New Zealand team, sparring with the Australian and Thai teams. “I don’t care where it is,” Andrew told Boxing News. “There’s nothing I can do about it. It keeps everyone on their toes.
“If there are any changes it does impact, but it’s boxing at the end of the day. If there’s any sport [which disruption’s] likely to happen to, it’s boxing. I’m pretty used to stuff changing around last minute. If I don’t get to go to China, I get to go to another country.”
Her training camp has been going well. “We’ve been training really hard,” she continued. “We [New Zealand] have got a really good team. [It’s been a good] couple of weeks to focus ahead of the qualifiers.”
Andrew, who boxes for Haringey in London, has been gaining international experience. She took on Australia’s Commonwealth Games champion Skye Nicolson at the World championships previously. “She won but there was not much in it,” Andrew says. “Hopefully I’m a bit more experienced now.”
There will be plenty of other elite boxers to watch out for in the now rescheduled qualifier. “The standard’s really high and that’s a good thing. I’m pretty excited about that,” she promises. “For me, this is my dream, to box the best people in the world. So I’m not really put off. I’m excited by it. It’s cool to share a ring with people like that and if I can beat them, then that’s pretty exciting.”