LAUSANNE: World Boxing has increased its membership to 84 countries with China and Turkey, whose athletes won medals in the ring at last year’s Paris Olympics, among the latest six to sign up. The International Olympic Committee last month granted provisional recognition to World Boxing, which was launched in 2023, in a major step towards boxing featuring at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics. The IOC stripped the International Boxing Asso-ciation (IBA) of recognition in 2023 over its failure to implement reforms on governance and finance. China finished second in the boxing medals table in Paris with three golds and two silvers. Turkey was eighth, equal with France, on two silvers and a bronze. The other countries announced in the latest batch on Wednesday were Sudan, Gre-ece, Montenegro and Slovakia. Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2025