2 Gone and 2 Changed – Info on NEW Men’s Olympic Weight Classes
Over a year on from it being initially mooted, there finally seems to be an indication on what the weight classes will be for male boxers at the Tokyo Olympics and beyond.
Featherweight (57kg) and welterweight (69kg) were to join flyweight (51kg), lightweight (60kg), and middleweight (75kg) and the total number of boxers at the Games is to swell from 36 to 80.
Alongside this news was the indication that the men would lose two weight classes to help facilitate.
There were many objections to this and numerous major international tournaments have taken place over the past 15 months with the ten existing weight classes but we are now seeing changes.
Reports online state that amateur boxing giants Kazakhstan are now operating with eight classes for the men in anticipation of the move – which is likely to be seen at the European Games and World Championships next year.
Light flyweight (49kg) and lightweight (60kg) have been removed while there have been slight changes to bantamweight and light welterweight. Bantam moves up one kilo to the old featherweight limit of 57kg while light welterweight drops one kilo to 63kg.
This leaves the weight classes as follows: 52kg, 57kg, 63kg, 69kg, 75kg, 81kg, 91kg, +91kg.
The implementation of these changes will mean a swelling of the flyweight ranks, while there will be a lot of decisions to make and shifting around from the old bantamweight limit right up to welterweight – with current lightweights being the most negatively effected.
60kg fighters will either need to cut to 57kg or build to 63kg and the six kilo jump between these new classes has been criticised
There will, however, be slightly more Olympic places per weight, with men now divvying up 206 across eight classes rather than 250 across ten. It is hoped that the extra slots are concentrated around the shifted weights.
Confirmation from both the IABA and AIBA is awaited.
The Irish team is currently training at the new High Performance Unit in Abbottstown ahead of the Nicolae Linca multi-nations in Romania this month and the Men’s EU Championships and Women’s World Championships in November in Spain and India respectively.
