NEW DELHI: The host organisers on Saturday faced major embarrassment after the wrong national anthem of Russia was played during the 70kg medal ceremony at the women’s World boxing championships here.
The goof-up occurred when Russia’s Demurchian Anastasiia climbed up the podium to receive her gold medal after winning her title bout against China’s Yang Chengyu in the light middleweight category.
It’s been learnt that the organisers played music from composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, whose song was approved as replacement for Russia’s banned national anthem at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 and Beijing Winter Olympic Games.
Russian athletes were barred from competing under their national flag and anthem in Tokyo.
Later, the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) came up with a statement, informing that the International Boxing Association (IBA) has launched a formal investigation into the matter.
“The Local Organising Committee (LOC) took the anthem from the Russian coach, checked it and handed it over to the IBA events team, who are in charge of the entire medal ceremony. There was a meeting regarding this and IBA is doing its own investigation and BFI will fully cooperate with the process," said a BFI spokesperson.
