It isn’t clear why one in every of Ukraine’s most distinguished sportsmen was detained at Krakow airport.
Heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk has been launched after being briefly detained at Krakow airport in Poland, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on Wednesday.
“I used to be disillusioned by this perspective in direction of our citizen and champion,” stated Zelenskyy after speaking to Usyk over the cellphone. “Our champion has been launched, and he’s now not being detained.”
He posted a photograph of Usyk with Ukraine’s Consul Basic in Krakow after the athlete was launched.
It was not instantly clear why the 37-year-old Usyk was detained. He’s one in every of Ukraine’s most distinguished athletes identified overseas, and he has organised and took part in several tasks aiding his nation’s efforts to withstand Russia’s invasion.
“A misunderstanding befell. It was shortly resolved,” stated Usyk on Instagram, expressing gratitude for the “environment friendly help” of Ukrainian diplomats. “And respect to Polish police for conducting their obligations with no regards to top, weight, attain and regalia.”
Just lately appointed Ukrainian International Minister Andrii Sybiha posted on X that he had been briefed on the small print of Usyk’s detention.
“Such actions towards our champion are disproportionate and unacceptable,” he wrote. “We’ll ship a related notice to the Polish facet.”
The 37-year-old Usyk, an Olympic gold medalist in 2012, began his skilled boxing profession as a cruiserweight and have become the division’s undisputed champion in 2018 with a win over Russian Murat Gassiev to unify all 4 belts.
He moved as much as heavyweight a 12 months later and received three title belts in opposition to Anthony Joshua in 2021.
Usyk grew to become the primary undisputed world heavyweight champion in 24 years when he beat Tyson Fury in Might in Saudi Arabia. He later introduced that he was “vacating the belt”.
Fury’s rematch with Usyk is scheduled for 21 December, once more in Saudi Arabia. After that combat, Usyk might think about dropping a weight class to return to cruiserweight.
