India to host men's, women's boxing World Championships

The International Boxing Association (AIBA) has awarded to India next year's women's World Championship and the men's 2021 World Championship.

This is the first time that India have been awarded the rights to host the men's event while the women's tournament will be held for the second time. The country had earlier hosted the women's World Championship in 2006.

The announcement was made by the AIBA at the end of its two-day executive committee meeting here.

The sports world governing body also announced that the men's World Championships will be held in the German city of Hamburg next month while Russia will host the 2019 edition.

"The strength of all of the bids we have seen today is the clearest indication yet of AIBA's successful efforts to amplify the prestige of its World Championships even further, with the strongest global broadcasting and sponsorship partnerships secured to date already finalised for next month's Men's World Championships in Hamburg," AIBA President Ching-Kuo Wu said in a statement.

"Having witnessed the Russian Boxing Federation's dedication to promote the sport of boxing and its capacity to meet the Executive Committee's expectations for hosting our biggest event, we are delighted to have the AIBA Men's World Championships 2019 confirmed for Sochi, and equally excited to announce New Delhi as host city in 2021 as the Boxing Federation of India continues to show its commitment to developing the sport," the statement added.

"Following the presentation of the Turkish Boxing Federation, I know that Trabzon will also meet the demands of hosting the world's biggest women's boxing tournament in 2019."

The development is a major one for India as the national federation was granted recognition by the AIBA only last year after serving suspension and termination between 2012 and 2016 due to administrative problems.