KARACHI: In a bid to develop a strong young batch for future national duty, Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) aims to benefit from the programmes of the Olympic Solidarity, a project of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), a senior official of the federation said on Thursday. “Our president is already working on that and it has almost been done. And we are hopeful that with these incentives we would be able to raise the standard of our youth as our main objective is to work on youth development,” PBF secretary Col Nasir Tung told ‘The News’ from Rawalpindi. The aim of Olympic Solidarity is to organise assistance to all the National Olympic Committees (NOCs), particularly those with the greatest needs, through multi-faceted programmes prioritising athlete development, training of coaches and sports administrators and promoting the Olympic values. The development and assistance budget approved by the Olympic Solidary Commission for the 2017-2020 plan amounts to $509,285,000, corresponding to the share of the broadcast rights from the Olympic Games (Rio 2016 and Pyeong Chang 2018) which belongs to the NOCs. Olympic Solidarity redistributes these funds through programmes offered to all NOCs recognised by the IOC. Meanwhile Nasir also revealed that Pakistan would be featuring in four weight categories in the Commonwealth Games slated to be held in Gold Coast, Australia from April 4-15.“Yes, in four weights we will feature. And we have already sent names of 18 probables, three each in six weights. The squad will be finalised during the national camp which will begin at Islamabad after the National Championship which we plan to hold at Lahore from January 15-21,” Nasir informed. To a query Nasir said that the national event, which was earlier scheduled in December, has been rescheduled following requests from various departments who have planned their Inter-Unit competitions next month. Nasir conceded that PBF plans to send top pugilists abroad for training ahead of the Commonwealth Games.“It’s very much in our plan. We have already filed request with the Scotland’s boxing body and we have almost reached to a consensus for training stint with Kazakhstan,” the official said. He was confident that this time Pakistan would definitely perform much better in Australia. “I am very much hopeful we will produce desired results in Australia. Our leading boxer Awais Ali Khan is one of our hopes and if he gets good draws then I am sure he will get medal,” Nasir hoped. He said that in the national camp 20 senior and ten young boxers will be kept. He was quick to add that AIBA has also tentatively scheduled the Asian qualifiers for Olympics from March 23 to April 2 in China. “If it is confirmed then we will have to field eight boxers in the qualifiers. In the super flyweight and middle weight we have no good boxers,” Nasir said.He said that leading six boxers in each weight would qualify for 2020 Tokyo Olympics. About PBF’s financial issues Nasir said that they were in contact with the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and corporate sector, adding, next year would bring in good results for them. “From next year onwards we will no doubt streamline our working and you will see that will benefit Pakistan. We are also in contact with AIBA and are seeking its assistance in the coaches and referees/judges education,” the official said.
