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| Benazir boxing event to be held in January |
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Saturday, October 17, 2009
KARACHI: After taking input from the Federal Sports Ministry, the boxing authorities on Friday revealed that the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto International Boxing tournament would be conducted here at the Expo-Centre from January 9-16, writes Alam Zeb Safi.
"After consulting with the top sports actors of the country, including the Federal Sports Ministry and the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) we have now decided to hold the international event in the month of January," the secretary of the Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) Muhammad Akram Khan told 'The News' here after a press briefing.
The tournament was earlier planned for October but then it was moved to January due to busy international commitments of the boxing playing nations across the globe.
"We also wanted to shift it from Karachi to Islamabad but after consulting with the top officials we have now opted for Karachi as the most suitable place for the mega show," Akram said.
He said that 45 countries from across the world have been issued invitations and he is hopeful that a good feedback will be received.
He said that the gold medallist boxer will be given $500, the silver medallist will be handed over $250 while the bronze medallist will be showered with $100.
Similarly, the winning team will be given $2500, the runners-up will be handed over $1500 while the best boxer of the tournament will be awarded $2000.
While unveiling the details of his meeting with the Federal Sports Minister on October 13 in Islamabad, Akram said that the meeting was fruitful.
"The PSB has agreed to increase the strength of boxers in the national camp from 25 to 40 and its formal approval will also come within few days. Once we get its approval then we plan to put the top upcoming youngsters with the seniors in the camp under Cuban coach Francisco Roldan," the PBF official said.
"In order to broad the base, we also plan to hold National Youth Ranking Boxing tournament here in February in which the leading 15 boxers will be picked and they would then be adjusted with the seniors and it will be made a permanent feature.
"We also want to invite foreign countries to have a series of joint training sessions with our boxers and this idea was also endorsed by the federal sports minister and other top officials of the PSB as it would be a useful exercise and would be financially easy," he said.
Akram also condemned the former PBF set-up under Anwar Chowdhry for not sending the officials of the current set-up to the Congress meeting of the Asian Boxing Confederation which was held in China in this June, which harmed Pakistan a lot.
"Anwar Chowdhry had told the Asian body that he was ill while the secretary Shakeel Durrani was in America. Chowdhry should have sent any of the current set-up of the PBF as our elections were held on December 20, 2008 as we could have gotten any seat in any wing of the body," he said.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
