NEW DELHI: Rio Olympics lightweight (60kg) champion, France's Estelle Mossely, and Tokyo Games featherweight (57kg) silver winner, Nesthy Petecio of the Philippines, are among the seven Olympic medallists who will be seen in action at the upcoming women's World boxing championships, scheduled to be held at the IG stadium here from March 15 to 26.
The championships is offering a staggering prize money fund of $2.4 million (Rs 19.50 crore). A total of 350+ women pugilists from 74 competing nations have registered for the event, which the sport's global governing body - International Boxing Association (IBA) - has announced as the main qualifying event for Paris Olympics 2024, along with the men's World Championships in Tashkent later in May, in the absence of a clear International Olympic Committee (IOC) qualification pathway.
The Boxing Federations of India (BFI) will be hosting the women's Worlds for the third time, most ever by any country since the tournament's inception. The entries could swell after the IBA extended the last date of registration till February 25.
Mossely is a French professional boxer who has held the IBO female lightweight title since 2019. As an amateur, she won gold in Rio and at the 2016 World Championships. She is married to Frenchman Tony Yoka, also a 2016 Olympic gold medalist and 2015 AIBA world amateur champion. Petecio became the first-ever boxer from the Philippines to secure an Olympic medal after her silver-winning effort in Tokyo. The 2019 world champion will compete in her preferred weight division. Beatriz Iasmin Ferreira (60kg) of Brazil and Qian Li (75kg) of China also won silver at the Tokyo Games.
Japanese Tsukimi Namiki and Colombian Ingrit Lorena Valencia will look to maintain their performance at the Worlds in the flyweight (51kg) category. Irma Testa, a bronze winner in Tokyo, will pose a tough challenge in the featherweight category, as the Italian has plenty of experience coming into the meet.
"The last World Championships saw participation of 310 boxers. In this edition, we already have more than 350 registrations from boxers around the world. The registration is still open as the closing date is February 25. With more than a week remaining, I am confident that some more nations and boxers will look to compete here," said BFI president Ajay Singh.
Several nations have boycotted the New Delhi Worlds over the participation of the Russian and Belarusian boxers in the wake of the war in Ukraine. USA, Ireland, Czech Republic, Sweden, Canada, Britain, Switzerland and the Netherlands have already announced their decision to boycott the championships.
