PBF to send boxers to Almaty for training

KARACHI: Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) plans to send its top boxers to Almaty next year for a month-long joint training with Kazakhstan’s boxers in a bid to prepare them for important international assignments in 2018 and onwards.

“We have already talked to Kazakhstan Boxing Federation (KBF) and they have agreed,” the PBF secretary Col Nasir Tung told ‘The News’ on Thursday. “We will send our top boys for a month, from February 15 to March 15,” he added.

Nasir said that 2018 would be an event-packed year and the federation wanted to provide a boost to the sport by managing the best training opportunities for boxers. “We will also feature in the Asian qualifying round for 2020 Olympics which will begin in China at the end of March. And then in April there will be Commonwealth Games in Australia and in summer the Asian Games will be held in Indonesia. All these are significant assignments and we should be prepared for these challenges,” Nasir added.

He said Kazakhstan would be a good place for the national boxers. “Kazakhstan is a strong boxing nation. Its clubs are better than our departments. Our boxers will get healthy sparring opportunities. They can also play in one or two events there,” Nasir said.

However, he was quick to add that it was yet to be decided how many boxers would be sent for training.“We will need a lot of money and we are working hard to implement our plans. Kazakhstan will provide accommodation and venue but we will have to meet the rest of the expenses,” Nasir said.

Pakistan last featured in the World Championships in Hamburg, Germany, this summer when Awais Ali Khan fell at the first hurdle in light heavyweight. To a query, Nasir said that Pakistan would feature in four weights in the Commonwealth Games slated to be held in Gold Coast, Australia, from April 4-15.

“We will try to send boys in those weights in which we have potential to win medals,” the official said.However, he said that effort would be made to field boxers in seven weight categories in the Asian qualifiers for Olympics.

“In super heavy and light flyweight we have no good stuff, so we will try to send the best in the rest of the categories,” Nasir said. The PBF plans to hold National Championship in Lahore from December 15-21 which will serve as trials for forming a pool for next year’s international assignments.

“We will pick around 30 boxers for the camp from the national championship. The camp will begin either in Islamabad or Karachi soon after the event. The eventual venue in Lahore is yet to be decided,” Nasir said.

He said that the PBF wanted to hold national championship in Karachi but the sponsors K-Electric told the federation to move it to January which was not possible. He said holding of national youth championship was also in the pipeline. “There is a fifty percent chance that the national youth championship will be held in November,” the official said.

“Youth is our future and our main focus will be to form a healthy pool of youngsters,” he said. About foreign coach, he said that the PBF was yet to find any suitable coach. “We are struggling but we have not yet come across any solid choice. We want the best coach,” Nasir said.