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Two punches were enough to force Italian Angela Carini to sensationally abandon her��Olympic��bout with Algerian Imane Khelif as a 46-second fight blew up the Paris boxing program.��

Boxing is grappling with conflicting gender eligibility rules in the humble arena north of Paris.��

Kheli and Taiwan’s Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan were disqualified from last year’s International Boxing Association-run world championships after they failed an unspecified gender eligibility test and were deemed to have a competitive advantage.��

But the International Olympic Committee has taken over from the IBA as boxing’s sanctioning body and, under different criteria, have allowed both to compete.��

As the sport fights for its Olympic future it’s become a lightning rod for criticism, Australia boxing captain��Caitlin Parker��saying on Wednesday it was wrong and “dangerous” for the pair to be competing.��

That was evident on Thursday when Carini and Khelif had only a few exchanges before Carini abandoned the bout, an extremely unusual occurrence in Olympic boxing.��

Carini’s headgear became dislodged twice before she quit and then refused to shake Khelif’s hand after the decision was announced.��

She cried in the ring before leaving.��

“She felt pain in the nose and said to me, ‘I don’t want to fight more’,” her Italian coach Emanuele Renzini told reporters in broken English.��

“People say, ‘Don’t go, it’s dangerous, she’s a man’. Maybe it’s this (why she quit).��

“It’s not my decision, It’s a difficult decision. I don’t want to be the CEO at the moment.”��

Khelif won a silver medal at the International Boxing Association’s 2022 world championships and will next face Williamson, if she’s able to beat Hungary’s Anna Luca Hamori in Thursday’s afternoon session.��

The 25-year-old entered the ring at the North Paris Arena to a chorus of cheers, but the crowd was confused by the bout’s sudden end.��

Khelif then dodged media as she briskly exited the arena, while Carini fought through tears to explain it was the injury, and not a protest, that forced her sudden abandonment.��

“I felt a strong pain in my nose and ... could no longer finish the match,” she said.��

“I am heartbroken because I am a fighter, my father taught me to be a warrior.��

“I felt all the controversy that there has been ... that was not something that stopped me or blocked me mentally.”Regardless of all the controversy that there was, I never cared, I went ahead and I just wanted to win.”��

Khelif, and Lin Yu‑ting, who both fought at Tokyo’s Games, have received massive scrutiny for their presence in Paris after years of amateur competition.��

Lin won IBA world championships in 2018 and 2022, but the governing body stripped her of a bronze medal last year because it claimed she failed to meet unspecified eligibility requirements in a biochemical test.��

The Algerian Olympic Committee issued a statement on Wednesday condemning what it termed “lies” and “unethical targeting and maligning of our esteemed athlete, Imane Khelif, with baseless propaganda from certain foreign media outlets.”��

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