Boxing-India eyeing for more olympic berths

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Chennai, July 13 : With former Coach G S Sandhu back at the helm of affairs as the National Coach and Cuban Coach B I Fernandes all set to get his contract renewed, India would be eyeing for more berths in the Beijing Olympics next year.

Painting a rosy picture about the future of Indian Boxing, Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) Secretary General Col. P K Muralidharan Raja said the federation was preparing its boxers in right earnest for the World Men's Championship to be held in Chicago from October 17 to November one and for the Olympics.

The focus would be more on the Chicago event as a quarterfinal finish would suffice for the Indian boxers to confirm their place in Olympics.

For those who could not make it from Chicago, the Indians would be having two continental events at Bangkok in January and in Kazakhstan in March. The finalists of these events would stand to qualify for Beijing Olympics.

Talking to UNI on the sidelines of the SRM-Federation Cup Boxing championship here, Col Raja said the team for the World Championship would be picked after the Senior Nationals to be held in New Delhi from August 25 to 31.

''Those who perform well in the Nationals and some boxers, being identified here in this Federation Cup, will be picked'', he added.

''The World Championship in Chicago is very important as India can look at qualifying for Olympics next year if they entered the quarters'', he added.

In all there would be about 300 boxers in Olympics of which 60 to 70 would be from Asia. ''We have to use these three tournaments, more especially the Chicago tournament, to gain as many berths as possible'', Col Raja said. ''We had just four participants in the last Olympics. We are looking at more Indians participating in Beijing next year as our boxers are training hard and shaping up very well'', a confident looking Col Raja said.

As part of preparations for the World Championship and Olympics, eight boxers would go to Kazakhastan for training, thanks to the magnanimity of Mittal Champions Trust, which had identified Kazakh coach Kanat to train the Indian boxers.

The eight pugilists -- Sanjay Kolte (light fly), Commonwealth bronze winner Jitender Kumar (feather), Commonwealth gold medallist Akhil kumar (Bantam), Diwakar Prasad (feather weight), Jai Bhagwan (light weight), Manoj Kumar (light welter), Dilbag Singh (welter) and Commonwealth silver medallist and Doha Asian gams Bronze winner Vijender (middle) -- had skipped the Federation Cup to train for four weeks in Kazakhastan.

These eight boxers would also participate in a tournament in Kazakhstan, in which 19 countries, including heavyweights like Cuba, Russia and China would particiapte. Two more boxers would join them for an international tournament at Xing Jang in China before the World Championship.

Giving more exposure to the young boxers to shape them up for the future international events was another initiative by the IABF. Col Raja said India would be fielding a full-fledged young team for the Commonwealth Tournament in Liverpool to prepare them for Commonwealth Youth Games in October next year. Sunil, who had won the World Cadet Championship and Santosh Singh, world junior silver medallist last year, would be carrying the Indian hopes.

To give a fillip to women boxers, who were off late doing well, the IABF had bid to host the Asian Boxing championship in December this year. Mongolia had also expressed its willingness to host it.

''We are yet to get a final world from the Asian Federation''.

''We are planning to conduct Indira Gandhi Memorial Women's International Boxing Tournament in Mumbai in November. If the Asian women's event was allotted to India then we will not be able to hold the Mumbai event, as Asian Championship is more important,'' he said.

A clear picture will emerge only after a reply from the Asian Body'', he added.

About the proposed new rule like removal of head guards and reducing the men's bouts from four rounds to three rounds of three minutes each, Col Raja said a final decision would be taken at the International Boxing Association (AIBA) Congress to be held during the World Championship at Chicago.

''Personally, we favour the new changes as it will help in getting more TV coverage. But we have to wait for the outcome of the AIBA Congress'', Col Raja said.

UNI