Jaismine Lamboria to fight for women’s 57kg Olympic quota in boxing after Parveen Hooda’s suspension – Firstpost

Boxer Jaismine Lamboria will compete for the Paris quota in the women’s 57 kg category during the second Olympic qualifications which will begin on May 24 in Thailand.

Jaismine will compete for the Olympic quota that the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) was forced to concede in embarrassing circumstances. This was after Parveen Hooda was suspended under World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules for multiple whereabouts failures over a 12-month period.

Hooda was handed a 22-month suspension by WADA, although she will effectively serve 14 months of her sentence after it was backdated following a series of discussions.

“Jaismine will compete in the 2nd Olympic qualifiers in Thailand in the 57kg category after quota winner Parveen was suspended by the International Testing Agency (ITA) for whereabouts failure. Olympic qualifying begins on May 24,” it said on Saturday the Indian Boxing Federation.

Jaismine had competed in the 60kg category in the first qualifiers and at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year. She won a bronze medal in the 60 kg category at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

In an unprecedented embarrassment for Indian boxing, the country was forced to abandon the women’s Olympic quota in the 57kg category on Friday due to Parveen’s suspension.

The 2022 World Championships bronze medalist boxer, who reached the Olympic quota with a bronze medal at the Asian Games last year, failed to report her whereabouts between April 2022 and March 2023, as per the WADA rules.

“Parveen Hooda has been suspended for 22 months by the International Testing Agency (ITA) for failure to trace,” the BFI said in a press release on Friday.

However, after discussions with relevant agencies, Parveen’s sanction was backdated and she must now serve a 14-month suspension starting Friday.

In boxing, a quota is allocated to the country and not to the athlete.

Three Indian boxers – Nikhat Zareen (50kg), Preeti (54kg) and Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) – have already booked Olympic quotas for India.

With PTI inputs