KARACHI:
The Pakistan Boxing Federation’s (PBF) plan of sending boxers to Kazakhstan a month prior to the Asian Qualifying round for Olympics to better prepare the players has been jolted as the squad will now have only two days before their scheduled bouts.
In addition, the one-night invitational fight event with Indian boxers has been postponed as well.
The Asian Qualifying round for Olympics will be held from April 4 in Astana, Kazakhstan and according to coach Majeed Brohi the squad will not be travelling to Astana for practice, which is a serious setback.
“We thought that we will get a chance to take our boxers to Astana atleast for two weeks but that will also not happen,” Brohi told The Express Tribune, while adding that the event in India has also been postponed indefinitely.
“Our team should have been there a month before as the chance to have combined training with the world’s best boxers would have helped our players.”
Brohi said that the combined training helps the coaches as well because they get to learn new techniques and methods.
However, he said that his main aim now is to keep the players motivated after the setback.
PBF Secretary Akram Khan, who said the players would be sent to Astana a month before the qualifiers, could not be contacted.
Meanwhile, star boxer Mohammad Waseem has said that PBF President Doda Bhutto Khan should come out and help the boxers travel to Astana.
“Where is the PBF president?” asked Waseem. “He hasn’t seen us prepare for the event and the last we saw of him was in the international boxing event held in Islamabad.”
Published in The Express Tribune, March 11th, 2012.
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