Paris 2024: Carini apologises to Khelif, Lin Yu Ting makes winning start

Lin Yu Ting, one of the boxers at the centre of a gender row at the Olympics, won her opening bout on points today.

While cleared to compete, the participation of Lin and Imane Khelif at Paris 2024 has led to scrutiny as they were disqualified from last year's World Championships for failing to meet the International Boxing Association's gender eligibility criteria.

After Algeria’s Khelif won inside 46 seconds on Thursday, her beaten opponent – Italy’s Angela Carini – described that she had "never felt a punch like this" and the debate has intensified.

Carini has now apologised for her reaction to abandoning her fight (below), telling Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport: "All this controversy makes me sad. I’m sorry for my opponent, too. If the IOC said she can fight, I respect that decision."

"It wasn't something I intended to do," Carini said of not shaking Khelif's hand.

"Actually, I want to apologise to her and everyone else. I was angry because my Olympics had gone up in smoke."

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Chinese Taipei fighter Lin, the top seed in the women’s featherweight (57kg) category, put the drama momentarily to one side with a unanimous decision victory over Uzbekistan’s Sitora Turdibekova.

While there was one score of 29-28 and four of 30-27 in favour of Lin, this was far from the mismatch of 24 hours earlier, with Turdibekova able to get inside her taller and rangier opponent’s guard.

Ultimately, the cleaner work came from Lin and she set up a quarter-final contest against