Day one of AIBA Congress focuses on progress
November 2nd, 2018 / IBA
The International Boxing Association (AIBA) convened in Moscow for the first day of the 2018 Congress. Opening the congress and speaking to the 136 National Federations present, AIBA Interim President Gafur Rahimov welcomed the AIBA family and further provided an update on a number of key areas for the federation including among others governance, finance, anti-doping, R&J and AIBA’s Olympic future. The congress also had the honor of welcoming a representative from the Russian Hosting Authorities, Mr. Igor Levitin, Assistant of the Russian President and First Vice President of the Russian Olympic Committee, who passed along the well-wishes from the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin emphasizing the importance and scale of the event – the official letter can be seen here.
As the Congress agenda carried on, further updates were presented to the national federations including reports from each confederation and the commissions of Technical & Rules, Referees & Judges, Medical, Coaches, Women, Athletes & Youth and World Series of Boxing. In addition, updates on the major competitions and projects were also presented and AIBA ED, Tom Virgets provided a detailed point by point update to the federations regarding the improvements made in the last 10 months including areas addressed by the IOC.
“AIBA has and always will pursue the best interests of boxing, today we showed that we are not only making significant improvements, but we are achieving milestones at an accelerated rate. To look at how far our federation has come in just 10 months is an achievement that all of our National Federations can be proud of. We are committed to being a transparent organization and empowering our members – the amendments passed today show how far we as a federation and as a sport have come.” said AIBA Executive Director Tom Virgets.
The finance report and the new business plan 2018-2020 were also presented, echoing again the spirit of a transparent management. The Congress ended its first day with the review and motion for amendments, most of which were approved by the members. The agenda will continue on November 3rd and includes among others the elections of various positions including the new AIBA President.
