Verghese axed,9 gold winners at Nationals in World Championship team

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) Failure to win a medal in the Nationals cost Doha Asiad bronze medallist Varghese Johnson a place in the nine member Indian squad for the World Boxing Championship.

The World Championship is slated to be held in Chicago (USA) from October 23 to November 3.

Intrestingly, gold medal winners in the nine categories in the 54th National Championship which concluded here last evening formed the squad.

The gold winners in heavyweight and super-heavyweight categories were, however, left out of the squad as they failed to ''impress the selectors in the Nationals''.

Johnson (91 kg) had lost in the quarterfinals of the Nationals.

AL Lakra (57kg) and Som Bahadur Pun (64kg) found place in two squads as they will also take part in the World Military Games to be held in Hyderabad from October 14 to 21.

According to Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) Secretary Murlidhar Raja, armymen Lakra and Som Bahadur will leave for Chicago on October 20 on which date the boxing competition ends in Hyderabad.

He said a two-week long coaching cum training camp will be held at Patiala for the selected boxers.

He added that IABF will send a team to Kazakhstan for training from September 29 to October 13.

The team: Balbir Singh (48kg), Jitender Kumar (51kg), S Suresh (54kg), AL Lakra (57kg), Jai Bhagwan (60kg), Som Bahadur Pun (64 kg), Dilbag Singh (69kg), Vijender (75kg) and Jasveer Singh (81kg).

UNI