Two more Pakistan boxers fall in Baku

Rio Olympics qualifiers

KARACHI: Pakistan’s hopes to make a cut for Rio Olympics boxing competitions almost ended when two more of its boxers were eliminated from the world qualifying round for Olympics being held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

In the lightweight preliminaries on Sunday night, Pakistan’s promising boxer Awais Ali Khan was undone by Uke Smajli of Switzerland 3-0 with the round scores of 30-27, 29-28, 30-27.

In the flyweight category preliminaries, young Mohammad Asif went 0-3 down against experienced Tanes Ongjunta of Thailand with the round scores of 30-27, 30-27, 30-27.

Four out of five boxers Pakistan fielded have been shown the exit doors.

Tanveer Ahmed was scheduled to face Dongyun Lee of Korea in the middleweight preliminaries on late Monday night.

The 2010 South Asian Games gold medallist Niamatullah had already lost his bantamweight fight against Caraballo Rodrigues Carlos Jose of Portugal 0-3 with the round scores of 30-26, 30-26, 30-26.

Ali Ahmed had been beaten by Anvar Yunusov of Tajikistan also 0-3. The round score remained 30-27, 3-27, 30-27.

Pakistan Boxing Federation’s (PBF) secretary Iqbal Hussain said the reason for losses was the lack of training abroad. “Had they got some training abroad the results could have been different,” Iqbal told ‘The News’ on Monday.

“You cannot run any sport without the help of the government. India spent Rs150 million on the preparation of its boxers but so far only one of its boxers has qualified for Olympics through Asian qualifying round,” Iqbal pointed out.

Shiva Thapa qualified for Rio through Asian qualifiers held in China this year.

Former Pakistan coach Ali Bakhsh said the boys had not been properly trained. “Not only was the training duration short but the coaching staff was also insufficient. Head coach Arshad Hussain also missed sometime because of a death at his home,” he said.

Ali, who had been attached with the boxers for the last three years, was dropped from the panel of coaches for preparing the lot for the Baku assignment.

Ali said that world qualifying round was not a joke. “It’s a very big event. Nations come to it after making tough preparations. We go directly from Pakistan without providing any exposure to our boys. You cannot win if you don’t take the preparation seriously,” the former Asian gold medallist said.

“When we went to India for the South Asian Games early this year we were impressed to see India having trained its boxers for two months in England. This is what the authorities here should do before such a major event,” Ali said.

Pakistani boxers last featured in the 2004 Athens Olympics. For the world qualifiers Pakistan did not send boxers in light flyweight, heavyweight and super heavyweight categories because of minor chances in these weights.

Amir Khan (69kg) and US-born Umar Cheema (64kg) failed to go with the Baku-bound squad. Amir’s passport was with the Mexico embassy, while Cheema developed a digestion problem.

Pakistan missed the Asian qualifying round for Olympics held in Qiana’n, China, in March and April this year due to financial problems.