By Aadi Nair
PARIS (Reuters) -Imane Khelif beat Hungary's Luca Anna Hamori by unanimous decision in a welterweight quarter-final at the Paris Games on Saturday to ensure Algeria's first Olympic boxing medal since 2000.
The 25-year-old Khelif, who has been in the eye of a storm about eligibility, had a quick start against Hamori, letting fly with flurries of lightning-fast punches to win the first two rounds on every judge's score card, despite the Hungarian landing a couple of strong shots.
The Algerian was slightly less willing to engage in exchanges in the final round, which had more than its fair share of clinching and grappling, but she did enough to win by a comfortable margin.
The pair hugged after the final bell, before a tearful Khelif embraced her coaches on the sidelines.
Khelif and a second boxer, Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, were disqualified at the 2023 World Championships in New Delhi after falling foul of the International Boxing Association's (IBA) eligibility rules, which include preventing athletes with XY chromosomes from competing in women's events.
The IBA did not specify on what grounds they failed. It has never been shown that the boxers have a genetic condition giving rise to a difference of sexual development (DSD).
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which last year stripped the IBA of its status as boxing's governing body over governance issues and took charge of the Paris 2024 boxing competition, cleared both boxers to compete.
"God willing, we will continue fighting for my country that I love the most," Khelif told Algerian state television after her win.
Khelif will face Janjaem Suwannapheng of Thailand, whom she beat at the world championships before being disqualified, in Tuesday's semi-finals.
FAN SUPPORT
"It is hard, she has suffered a lot -- as a child and now as a champion, she has suffered so much during these Games," said Khelif's coach Mohamed Chaoua.
"Where is the humanity? Where are the associations for women's rights? She is a victim."
The North Paris Arena had a number of Algerian fans in attendance, who cheered on Khelif throughout the bout and chanted "Imane, Imane, Imane" loudly while waving the country's flags.
"We were quite sad to see that controversy; she's an athlete who is well supported in Algeria and we're behind her," Algerian fan Kawther Laanani told Reuters.
IOC president Thomas Bach on Saturday said there "was never any doubt" that Khelif and Lin were women who had every rightto compete at the Paris Olympics.
On Friday, Hungary's boxing federation said it had contacted the IOC to object to Khelif's participation in the tournament.
But on Saturday, Hungary's IOC representative Balazs Furjes said there was never any question of Hamori not fighting Khelif and the team trusted the IOC to make the right decision.
Khelif won her round-of-16 bout in 46 seconds on Thursday, when her Italian opponent Angela Carini pulled out of the fight.
Carini was hit with multiple punches in the first 30 seconds, before raising her hand and returning to her corner to withdraw from the fight.
The Italian later said she wanted to apologise to Khelif in an interview with Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport.
Taiwan's double world champion Lin faces Svetlana Kamenova Staneva of Bulgaria in a featherweight quarter-final on Sunday.
The Bulgarian Olympic Committee said it had voiced its concerns over Khelif's and Lin's presence at the tournament during a meeting with the IOC's Medical and Scientific Commission on July 27.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair; additional reporting by Layli Foroudi, Ahmed Ashraf Atta, Kurt Michael Hall, Miguel Pereira and Gabriel Stargardter in Paris; editing by Clare Fallon)
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