Oraekwe 'heartbroken' to miss Worlds over late sex tests
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."
World Boxing has rejected the criticism, saying it "made it clear that testing will be the responsibility of national federations as they have the closest links and most access to their boxers and are best placed to manage the testing process".
It said all federations had been warned on 21 August that the processing of results for sex-testing can take 48 hours and that any tests completed later than 1 September "would jeopardise your athlete's entry into the official draw and competition".
Teams were told to consider their arrival time if they required testing once in the UK.
Nigerian officials said Oraekwe and two of her team-mates had testing in Leeds on Monday, immediately after landing in the UK, but did not receive their results until Thursday evening, by which time they had been barred.
"They brought the tests late", said Oraekwe. "All I want to say is for World Boxing to compensate us, because we have spent a lot." World Boxing has been approached for comment.
The sex tests are banned in France without a medical prescription, so the French boxing federation also sent its five-member women's team to the lab in Leeds on Monday to take them.
It said it learned on Wednesday "with stupefaction and indignation" that the fighters would not be able to compete because, "despite guarantees given to us by World Boxing, the laboratory which they recommended to us was not up to the task of delivering the results on time".
It said: "As a result, our athletes as well as those from other countries have been caught in this trap and excluded."
French fighter Maelys Richol told BBC Sport she was "really upset about the situation".
She said: "When I came here I didn't think it would turn out like this. It's been a year, almost, that we've been preparing for the World Championships. And learning that the day before, it's not easy."
World Boxing said the tests have been introduced to ensure safety and fairness in the women's competition.
"We're sympathetic because we know every boxer gives their heart and soul every night in the gym," Mike McAtee, World Boxing's acting secretary general, told BBC Sport.
"But boxing is a sport that you have to follow the rules. One of the biggest things is to protect boxers from themselves, and make sure that we have health and safety.
"We gave plenty of notice, but again we're sympathetic to any boxer, coach, federation that prepared, and for whatever reason they weren't able to participate.
"This is 100% the right policy to make sure that we have athletes compete safely and competitively.
"From our standpoint, we can always learn. We'll look at this afterwards, how we can be a better organisation to make sure we're able to support our members to be able to get testing if they're not allowed in their country."
The governing body has declined to say if any fighters taking the tests have failed them.
Last week Algerian boxer Imane Khelif filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to challenge World Boxing's introduction of the genetic sex test.
Khelif and Taiwanese fighter Lin Yu-ting were disqualified from the 2023 World Championships by previous world governing body the International Boxing Association (IBA) for allegedly failing gender eligibility 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.
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