An International Olympic Committee taskforce has been called “irresponsible” after the Turkish Boxing Federation said two fighters and a coach who took part in a Tokyo 2020 qualifying event in London in March had since tested positive for coronavirus.
The Boxing Road to Tokyo competition at the Copper Box was called off after three days because of the pandemic.
Turkish Boxing Federation president Eyup Gozgec told BBC Sport that organisers failed to take the outbreak seriously enough and “didn’t care”.
He added: “I just want to know, when the whole world was on high alert, why they hosted this event?
“We didn’t see any hygienic standards there. There were no preventative measures.”
Organisers said they had applied extra precautions and that no teams had reported symptoms at the event. The IOC said at the time of the competition there were no governmental restrictions or advice on public events in place, but expressed its sympathy for the affected athletes.
Also, Marko Marovic of the Croatian Boxing Federation claims a fighter and two of its coaches have the disease.
He told BBC Sport: “Our epidemiologist says they were most probably infected during [the] Tokyo 2020 qualifier.”
Marovic, secretary general of the Croatian Boxing Federation, added: “Our first concern is the health of our boxing family. We are still praying that everything ends well and there will be no other positive tests.”
He said both Croatian coaches and the fighter were “stable” and in quarantine.
All of them are in treatment now and thankfully are in good condition.
“This is the disastrous result of the irresponsibility of the IOC Boxing Task Force.”
Gozgec says he now intends to write to all European boxing associations asking if any of their teams at the event have since tested positive.
“The organisers were irresponsible, and I think they didn’t realise the severity of the issue so they just didn’t care,” he said.
“They just didn’t take this outbreak seriously and they didn’t care about it. They did no tests for us. They just told us to go. They dropped us at the airport and that was it.”
He added: “They knew they were going to have to cancel – why go with it? The health of our athletes and staff is our priority.”
It is not clear whether the fighters and coach contracted the virus in London or once they returned to Turkey.
–thenationonlineng.net
