Wuhan dilemma for IOC as Hong Kong’s Rex Tso gears up for Tokyo Olympic boxing qualifiers
- The 32-year-old former professional is trying to reach the Tokyo Games as a featherweight and travels to Europe for training this week
- Wuhan tournament could be postponed or even cancelled as the city battles a mystery pneumonia virus
Former unbeaten professional Rex Tso Sing-yu’s hopes of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics could become a whole lot harder with boxing authorities still deciding whether to go ahead with staging a qualifying tournament in Wuhan – the Chinese city that has been struck by a mystery pneumonia virus.
The Olympic boxing task force – set up by the IOC executive board – last year announced that Wuhan would hold the Asia/Oceania qualifiers in Wuhan from February 3-14. Wuhan is one of four continental qualifying tournaments with Dakar, London and Buenos Aires also staging events and offering opportunities for aspiring amateurs to pick up enough ranking points to book their places for this summer’s Olympics.
However, the Wuhan qualifiers could either be postponed or cancelled altogether after the Chinese city was struck by a mystery virus that has affected dozens of people. As of Sunday, 59 people were diagnosed with the condition and have been isolated. Seven were in critical condition, while the rest were stable.
The IOC will have to decide whether to move the Asian/Oceania qualifiers elsewhere if the situation in Wuhan deteriorates. If another city decides to step in, they would have less than four weeks to organise it, providing a massive headache for the sports governing body.
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The IOC took up organisational Tokyo Olympics duties after kicking out the International Boxing Association (Aiba) because of massive corruption and match-fixing at the Games.
“We really do not know whether the Wuhan qualifiers will go ahead. It’s up to the boxing authorities,” said Hong Kong Boxing Association sports executive Alex Yeung.
“Rex will be leaving Hong Kong for Europe in the next two days for training. We are all hoping that he makes it to Tokyo. Rex is one of six Hong Kong boxers who are trying to qualify for Tokyo. The qualifiers in Wuhan will be no easy task for him as he will also compete against boxers from Australia,” he said.
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Tso, who compiled an impressive 22-0-0 record as a professional and was once the World Boxing Organisation’s (WBO) No 1 ranked boxer in the super flyweight division, now competes as a featherweight (57kg or 125 pounds).
The 32-year-old “Wonder Kid” fought his last professional fight when he defeated former WBA world champion Kohei Kono, of Japan in October 2017, but an eye injury saw him take a year break before he made a shock announcement in November 2018 that he would be trying his luck as an amateur at the Tokyo Olympics.
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The qualification system implemented by the Olympic task force is complicated with six boxers from the Asia/Oceania zone reaching Tokyo automatically. Boxers who fail to qualify from their continental qualifying zones will have a “second chance” when they take part in a “World Olympic Qualification Event” in Paris from May 13-20.
According to the qualification system, only the top five or six men’s featherweight boxers from Paris will get the final nod for Tokyo. The Tokyo Olympics boxing competition begins on July 25 and ends on August 9. The Tokyo tournament will feature 186 men and 100 women compared to 250 men and 36 women in Rio four years ago.
