GB Olympic boxing: Selby should have been auto qualifier after world silver; Yafai to join pro ranks ?

It remains a mystery why Andrew Selby, the European champion and silver medallist from the world championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, was forced into a box-off for the Olympic with Khalid Yafai. Bonkers decision. No logic. And why, even, a box-off over three matches ? Isn't the world, and indeed, Olympic tournament quite clearly on a knock out basis. The British Amateur Boxing Association needs to not fall into the trap of doing what AIBA, the world amateur governing body for the sport have done (or got away with) for far too long, in making the rules up as they go along.

From this perspective, it was just that Selby won the first bout at the York Hall, Bethnal Green, by a princely margin, and that Yafai then struggled to make the weight for Saturday. It meant the Olympic placed passed automatically to the Welshman. The third of their bouts would have taken place at the test event at the ExCeL Arena early in December.

They are both flyweights, and the ruling for the Olympic Games is that one boxer per country per weight division is allowable. Yafai had already represented GB in Beijing in 2008. The underlying issue, after he had qualified a place in London with a quarter-final berth at the world championships, was that he had beaten Selby twice in prior bouts. The agreement with the GB team set-up was that if Selby took gold in Baku, he would not have to go through a box-off. In essence, a mess. The highest qualifier at a tournament should go to the Games. If they had both reached the semi-final, and won a bronze medal as losers at that stage, their equal standing might have merited it.