>>>ANSA/Meloni meets IOC's Bach amid Khelif-Carini row

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 2 - Premier Giorgia Meloni had a meeting on Friday with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, amid a major controversy over Thursday women's boxing match at Paris 2024 between Italy's Angela Carini and Imane Khelif, an Algerian who was disqualified from last year's world championships for failing gender-eligibility tests.
    The 25-year-old from Naples stopped fighting seconds into round of 16 women's welterweight (under 66kg) contest saying the first punch she suffered hurt too much and it was clear she was outpowered.
    The IOC has used a different set of rules for admission to the Paris 2024 tournament than those for the women's boxing world championships.
    Meloni said Thursday that the Carini-Khelif match was not a fair fight and women should not have to compete against opponents with "male genetic characteristics".
    The premier, who is in Paris to cheer on Italy's Olympians, had a meeting with Carini on Thursday. "I know you will not give up, Angela," Meloni posted on social media afterwards. "And I know that one day you will earn what you deserve with effort and sweat. In a competition that is finally fair." Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) President Giovanni Malagò also took part in the meeting at the hotel where Meloni is staying in Paris, according to the sources.
    Bach told ANSA on Friday that the IOC will clarify the situation after meeting Meloni, while also stressing that Khelif "is a woman".
    "It was a positive meeting, the Carini case was among the things we talked about," Bach said after the encounter with Meloni.
    "We agreed to stay in touch to 'welcome' the same scientific background and make the situation more understandable because she (Khelif, ed.) is a woman and she has been competing for six years at the international level.
    "We share the same views and agree on (the need to) clarify and improve the scientific background (criteria) we talked about".
    The topics of the meeting also included the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics and international politics, the sources said.
    (ANSA).