No use of foreign coach now, says Buksh

Boxing coach rues delays that prevented Aguilera from training Pakistani athletes

KARACHI: Pakistan boxing coach Ali Buksh has said there is no point for any foreign coach to come to train the boxers as only three weeks remain before the 2016 Rio Olympic qualifiers begin.

Cuba’s Bernardo Comas Aguilera was supposed to join the Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) and train the team in December but no final date for his arrival has been confirmed yet and Buksh, who has been heading the camp to train the boxers, believes it is too late now.

“We’ve been training for a long time with limited resources on our own,” Bakhsh told The Express Tribune. “We’ll welcome the coach if he comes, but too much time has passed and no one can just come in and train the athletes in two weeks.”



Buksh, who led the team in the South Asian Games, believes that Pakistan would face tough competition from Central Asian boxers in the Olympic qualifiers and has recommended the PBF to send the boxers to train abroad.

“We are just training in Pakistan and even if a foreign coach comes along, he will ask the PBF to send the players abroad,” Buksh added. “That is what I have been telling them too. In the Asian qualifiers we have very slim chances because other countries are putting a lot more money and effort in their teams. Our boxers need to spar with boxers who are better than them.”



PBF secretary Iqbal Hussain has, meanwhile, intimated that the federation is trying its best to get Aguilera on board within a week and added that US-based boxer Umer Cheema will also compete in the trials at the camp.

Pakistan will send 10 boxers in 10 categories for the event.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2016.

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