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LONDON. — British boxer Amir Khan yesterday hailed the decision to allow professional boxers at the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, saying he would love to represent the country of his parents’ birth, Pakistan.

Khan, born and raised in Bolton, England, won a silver medal in the lightweight category of the 2004 Athens Olympics before turning professional a year later. But yesterday’s ruling by boxing’s governing body at an extraordinary congress in Lausanne, Switzerland that professional boxers can compete at the upcoming Olympic Games in Brazil, rekindled Amir’s dreams of glory. “It’s a decision which I welcome,” Khan said at a press conference at a promotional event in Karachi. “It will help boxers and if I am permitted as per rules and from my promoter then I would love to compete for Pakistan.”

His father Sajjad Khan hails from Matore village near Kahuta, home to Pakistan’s nuclear facilities and close to the capital Islamabad. He migrated to Britain, where Khan was born in 1986. — AFP.