New Delhi, June 1: India’s nine Olympic-bound boxers will travel abroad for a three-week training stint after getting a few days’ break following a record-shattering medal haul by the country’s pugilists at the just-concluded Asian Championships in Dubai.
Speaking to PTI, Indian men’s boxing’s High Performance Director Santiago Nieva said the boxers will reach Tokyo for the Games, five to seven days before the start of the event from July 23. “We will go abroad for training. The discussions are on and the place will be finalised in the next few days. It will be a three-week camp. We will come back to India to fine tune a few things, and then head to Tokyo five-seven days before the Games,” Nieva said laying down the plan for the coming days.
The complete modalities of the planned trip will be revealed after the venue is finalised. The Indian boxing team has travelled quite a bit in the past few months for tournaments and training, including a lengthy trip to Europe.
The training at home has been sporadic because of the threat posed by COVID-19. In fact, in April, national coach C A Kuttappa had tested positive for COVID-19 forcing him into quarantine for 10 days.
Indian boxers fetched their best ever medal haul of 15 at the event in Dubai, two more than their previous best performance. The medals clinched this time included two gold, five silver and eight bronze medals.
The only gold-winner among the Olympic-bound was Pooja Rani (75kg), while M C Mary Kom (51kg) and Amit Panghal (52kg) fetched silver medals. The lone male boxer to fetch a gold was Sanjeet (91kg), who is not a part of the Olympic group. Vikas Krishan (69kg), Simranjit Kaur (60kg) and Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) were among the Olympic-bound bronze-medallists. The others to have made the cut for Tokyo are Manish Kaushik (63kg), Ashish Chaudhary (75kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg). Of these, Ashish lost in the quarterfinals in Dubai and Manish and Satish could not travel due to illness. (PTI)
