Jaismine To Compete In Olympic Qualifiers' 57kg Category

Jaismine Lamboria will compete in the second Olympic boxing qualifiers in Thailand beginning May 24 after India was forced to surrender the women’s 57kg category quota for the Paris Games owing to holder Parveen Hooda’s international suspension for three whereabout failures in 12 months. Hooda was handed a 22-month suspension by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Friday.

“Jaismine will compete at 2nd Olympic qualifiers in Thailand in the 57kg category after the suspension of quota winner Parveen by the International Testing Agency (ITA) for Whereabouts Failures Olympic qualifiers start from May 24,” Boxing Federation of India said on Saturday.

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

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

The 2022 world championship bronze-medallist boxer, who fetched the Olympic quota with an Asian Games bronze last year, failed to file her whereabouts in the period from April 2022 to March 2023 as per WADA rules.

“Parveen Hooda has been suspended for 22 months by the International Testing Agency (ITA) for Whereabouts Failures,” the BFI had said in a media release on Friday.

However, after discussion with the concerned agencies, Parveen’s sanction has been back-dated and she has to now serve a 14-month suspension starting Friday.

In boxing, a quota is awarded 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 so far.