“It was irresponsible to do this”: Turkey considers the IOC guilty of infecting boxers with coronavirus in London

At least six people who visited London at the European Boxing Qualification Tournament to participate in the Olympic Games had a coronavirus detected after returning home. On Thursday, March 26, the head of the Turkish Boxing Federation and Vice-President of the European Boxing Confederation Eyup Gozdec announced the illness of three of them. He sharply criticized the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for not paying due attention to the health of athletes and holding a tournament while the coronavirus pandemic was gaining momentum.

“While the whole world took emergency measures to fight the virus, the IOC working group and the British government, to my surprise, were allowed to start this tournament, despite the fact that many of us had concerns, and almost all competitions in other sports were discontinued. It was irresponsible to do so. Unfortunately, this led to the test of three athletes of our team giving a positive result, ”the Guardian quotes Gozdecz.

The European Boxing Qualifying Tournament has been scheduled for March 14-24. More than 300 athletes had to play 77 quotas for the Tokyo Olympics - from four to eight in various weight categories - at the Copper Boxing Arena in London.

The competition began the day after the English Premier League and the vast majority of other sports events were stopped. On the second day, the organizers decided to conduct fights without spectators in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus, which at that time in the UK already infected about 1,400 people. Only at the height of the third day, when quotas were already won in two weight categories, it was decided to stop the competition.

Gozedech said he would file a complaint with the IOC. He noted that the organizers did not take all the necessary precautions and endangered the health of athletes. At the same time, he noted that both boxers and their coach, who passed positive tests in Turkey, are now undergoing treatment and are doing well. As of March 26, 2433 cases of coronavirus infection and 59 deaths were recorded in the republic.

“The virus has been spreading since December 2019. In this regard, the question inevitably arises: why the decision to postpone the European qualifying tournament was not made before it began. They didn’t think about anyone’s health, and therefore they started holding this terrible event, ”Gozedech said.

Serhat Guler and head coach of the Turkish national team Seyfullah Dumlupynar became infected with the coronavirus. The name of another ill Turkish boxer was not reported. In addition to them, the infection affected the Croatian Tony Filipe, speaking in the category up to 91 kg. In a conversation with Radio Zadar, he said that he was on self-isolation in Zagreb when his temperature rose. The test showed that he had a coronavirus. Later it became known that two coaches of the Croatian national team were also infected.

The representative of the organizing committee assured that the teams were informed about the steps to be taken if any of the members of their delegations showed symptoms of infection with the virus, but none of them sought medical help and did not report a deterioration in well-being.

“Throughout the tournament, our medical team daily contacted the Public Health Service of England and regularly gave directions consistent with government recommendations. A number of additional measures were taken, including hand sanitizers provided at the venues, and the temperature was regularly measured as part of the daily medical examination of boxers, ”the source said.

The competition was held by the IOC Boxing Working Group, which claimed the right to identify participants in the Tokyo Olympic Games instead of being deprived of recognition by the International Boxing Association. The organization said that the connection between infected boxers and the tournament in which they participated could not be proved.

“First of all, the boxing working group wants to express sympathy for the affected athletes and officials and wish them a speedy recovery and full recovery. The working group is in close contact with their national Olympic committees. Some news reports on a link between infected participants and a qualifying tournament held in London. This tournament was stopped ten days ago, and the working group is not aware of any connection between competitions and infections. Many participants were at independently organized training camps in Italy, the UK and in their home countries before the start of the competition and returned home some time ago, so it is impossible to establish the source of infection, ”the IOC statement said.

The working group noted that the qualifying tournament was held with the approval of the British government simultaneously with a number of other sports competitions. To date, similar competitions for boxers in Africa and Asia have been fully completed, and competitions in America and the world qualifying tournament in Paris have been postponed indefinitely.