Algeria’s Imane Khelif has stormed into the women’s welterweight boxing final at the Paris Olympics 2024 after beating Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng in a unanimous points decision by the judges in the French capital.
Khelif, who has been the target of a gender row during the games, celebrated her win by jumping with joy in the ring at the Rolland Garros Stadium on Tuesday evening.
She defeated Thailand’s 2023 world silver medallist Janjaem Suwannapheng in a unanimous points decision to march into Friday’s final.
A large Algerian contingent in the stands waved the country’s flag and roared with delight as the referee lifted Khelif’s hand to declare her the winner after three rounds.
Her supporters were on their feet, chanting “Imane, Imane” to cheer her on during and after her emphatic win.
Khelif was given the biggest roar of the night by a sizeable number of Algerian fans with flags as she entered the arena.
The Thai, who had a clear height disadvantage, took a standing count in the third round after feeling the full power of the superior Algerian.
At the end of the fight at the 15,000-seated Court Philippe-Chatrier, which was close to capacity, the two fighters greeted each other warmly and shook hands.
Khelif did a dance in the middle of the ring, to more roars of approval. It was in contrast to her post-win reaction after beating Hungary’s Luca Anna Hamori in the quarterfinal, when she let out a roar and wept uncontrollably following a tumultuous couple of days.
The 25-year-old has been embroiled in a major gender-based eligibility controversy, also targeting Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, and has dominated headlines and been the subject of much discussion on social media platforms.
Khelif and Lin both fought at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago but there was no controversy at the time and neither won a medal.
Both were disqualified from last year’s world championships in India after failing gender eligibility tests, but were cleared to compete in Paris.
The gender controversy ignited when Khelif defeated Angela Carini in 46 seconds in her opening bout in the French capital. The Italian was reduced to tears and abandoned the fight after suffering a badly hurt nose.
The 2023 world championships, from which Lin and Khelif were expelled, were run by the International Boxing Association (IBA) but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is organising the sport at the games because of financial, governance and ethical concerns at the IBA.
The IBA’s Kremlin-linked president Umar Kremlev claimed at a chaotic news conference on Monday that both fighters had “genetic testing that shows that these are men”.
The IOC has leapt to the defence of Khelif and Lin, with president Thomas Bach saying they were born and raised as women and have passports saying that.
The 28-year-old Lin fights in the semifinals of the women’s 57kg division on Wednesday.
Khelif faces China’s Yang Liu or Taiwan’s Chen Nien-chin for gold.
