Saturday was a great day for the Olympic boxers from Uzbekistan: they were able to conquer three gold medals on the first of two final days at the World Championship tournament in Tashkent. The knee-jerk suspicion of favoritism is put into perspective on closer inspection. Asadkhuja Muydinkhujaew's welterweight points victory was understandable, and the other two triumphs came prematurely. This applies to the flyweight division, where Hasanboy Dusmatov knocked out Frenchman Billal Bennama, as well as to Bakhodir Yalolov. The Olympic champion in the super heavyweight division had worked Cuba's Fernando Arzola so hard in the first round that his coaches threw in the towel at the break.
In more consensual times, Yalolow might have bumped into Nelvie Tiafack that evening. However, the European champion from Cologne did not have such a big day. On the same evening, he entered the ring in a school sports hall in Hamm, Westphalia, to win the last fight in the first of two final comparisons in the Boxing Bundesliga against Traktor Schwerin in the jersey of MBR 31/46 Hamm. This was a short pleasure, because the opponent's supervisors signaled the task after just a few seconds. The tactical manoeuvre preceded the abandonment as well as a clearer points classification - and saved the guests from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern a draw (10:10). However, this is not really satisfying.
"IBA bypasses national associations"
A medal at the World Cup tournament – and a bonus of between 50,000 (about 45,700 euros) and 200,000 dollars (about 182,800 euros) – would have been Tiafack in case of doubt. But such goals have been destroyed by a symptomatically uncoordinated agenda. In just over five weeks, the European Games will take place in Krakow and the surrounding area, where the continent's best boxers can also qualify for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
It is only on this date that the 24-year-old Rhinelander with roots in Cameroon is expected to reach his peak performance. That's why the German Boxing Federation (DBV) has not delegated any athletes to the Silk Road at all – also in the knowledge that starting places for the Olympics will not be awarded at the IBA World Championships, but only at the continental tournaments. What they and their coaches understood better than some in the International Boxing Association (IBA) who spoke of a boycott – triggered by the fierce dispute over the political line of the governing body in times of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.
At the moment, people prefer to plan and talk past each other in the associations that take care of so-called "amateur boxing" at various levels. This applies to the relationship between the association's leadership and a number of member countries as well as between the IBA and the IOC. The decision-makers from Olympus have temporarily withdrawn the recognition of the boxing association in 2019 because of lousy "governance" and questionable sporting decisions. They may also have been less than thrilled that the IBA leadership, now led by Russian Umar Kremlev, had Russian and Belarusian boxers compete with national flags in Tashkent. This is not even in line with the lenient line that Bach and Co. have recommended to all umbrella organizations on the matter, but stands for an unabashedly pro-Russian course.
Jens Hadler, as the recently elected president of the DBV, may not stop hoping for a last-minute agreement – even though the US federation has already withdrawn from the IBA and co-founded the rival "World Boxing". In this sense, the entrepreneur and lecturer for drive technology expressed himself to the F.A.Z. on Saturday in Hamm: "I wonder if all the players think about the young people who are instructed in the clubs by their coaches for a modest expense allowance and want to live their Olympic dream."
Hadler knows that the people around Kremlev recently delivered a thick folder with documents for their self-cleaning to the IOC, whose executive branch will decide at the end of the month on how to deal with the boxers. All the more reason for the IBA's attempts to invite boxers from critically minded federations to the World Championship tournament without their knowledge. Just like those two German players and coaches to whom the organizers granted official status against the express will of the DBV. A strange way to collect country flags despite the cancellation of several nations.
"These are children who have been looking for an adventure," said Hadler, who wants to discuss any sanctions against the German travel group in the board. "But the bigger problem is that the IBA has passed by the national associations." Conversely, his federation was recently asked to withdraw its athletes from a tournament in the Czech Republic because US boxers started there. The DBV deliberately did not comply with this – in the spirit of its athletes, who, according to Hadler, should be "at the centre of all decisions". Actually.
What remains is the impression of a thinned-out World Cup tournament disheveled by politics, in which US and British boxers, Canadians, Swedes and Germans were absent, as were the athletes of the Ukrainian federation, which remains suspended under Kremlev's direction until further notice. And a truly great German beacon of hope who, in his search for his status, does not go beyond Westphalia.