March 15 (Reuters) – Russia and Belarus will compete at the women’s planet boxing championships with their flags and national symbols right after their athletes carried the flags at the opening ceremony of the occasion in India on Wednesday.

The two national teams are also named with their flags in the official International Boxing Association (IBA) competitors list with 12 Russians entered and six competing athletes from Belarus at the March 15-26 occasion in New Delhi.

Athletes from Russia and its neighbour Belarus, which aided Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago, have been banned from several international competitions due to the fact.

In some sports exactly where they are nonetheless competing they are performing so with no their national flags or anthems.

The IBA, which is headed by Russian businessman Umar Kremlev, lifted sanctions on the two nations final year and is enabling their athletes to compete as usual.

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“They should really participate. It should really not be some sort of privilege that is offered based on the situations. Each and every international association should really have these requirements,” Kremlev told Reuters his month.

The IOC issued sanctions against Russia and Belarus right after final year’s invasion of Ukraine but is reluctant to exclude their athletes from the Olympics totally for worry of a return to the boycotts of the Cold War era.

They set out a pathway in January for competitors from Russia and its ally Belarus to earn Olympic slots via Asian qualifying and to compete as neutral athletes in Paris subsequent year.

Neutral athletes are not deemed to be representing their nations and their successes are not accompanied by the flying of flags or playing of national anthems.

Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Ed Osmond

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