Boxing Federation of India (BFI) President Ajay Singh was not elected to the International Boxing Association’s (AIBA) Executive Committee after he was forced to skip the world body’s Annual Congress in Moscow on Saturday owing to illness.
“Mr Singh was indisposed and had to skip the Annual Congress because of which his name was not considered by the delegates,” a top federation source said here. “Since he was our voting delegate as well, India did not cast a vote in the Presidential election either,” he added.
Singh’s nomination was approved, along with 10 others from the Asian bloc, by the International Boxing Association’s (AIBA) election committee chairman Jost Schmid last month in Lausanne.
READ: Controversial Gafur Rakhimov elected AIBA president
It is learnt that the Asian bloc will be represented by Thailand and Qatar now. Singh, also the co-founder of low-cost airline Spicejet, is currently a member of the Asian Boxing Confederation’s EC.
The AIBA held its elections in the Russian capital where incumbent Gafur Rakhimov won after polling 86 votes out of 134 valid ballots. His rival was Kazakhstan’s Serik Konakbayev, who said he would launch a movement of his own to “save boxing” after losing the election.
Rakhimov’s election to the top post puts boxing’s future as an Olympic sport in serious jeopardy. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has made it clear that it wants Rakhimov to step aside — primary reason being his alleged links to organised crime.
However, the Uzbek has maintained that he has no criminal antecedents as alleged by the US Treasury Department.
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