New Delhi: Former World Championship bronze-medallist boxer Gaurav Bidhuri has challenged the selection procedure for the upcoming trials for next year's Olympic Qualifiers and sought Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju's intervention in the matter. In a letter addressed to Rijiju, the Boxing Federation of India, and the Sports Authority of India, Bidhuri has said that he has been unfairly kept out of the trials to be held on December 29 and 30 in Bellary, Karnataka.

"I have had enough of this unfair system. The medallists from this year's world championships were given direct slots in the Olympic Qualifiers. But when I won the world bronze in 2017, I wasn't even allowed to appear for Commonwealth and Asian Games trials," Bidhuri told PTI. "At that time I was told I hadn't competed enough, this time I am being told I haven't competed against strong opponents. Can somebody explain what is the selection criteria here? It doesn't make any sense," he said. Bidhuri wants to appear in the 57kg category trials for the Qualifiers scheduled in February in China.