Pakistan plans 4-member squad for CWG boxing

KARACHI: Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) plans to finalise a four-member squad for the Commonwealth Games (CWG) in the first week of March.

“After a few days of tough practice we will finalise the four-member squad by March 6 or 7,” PBF secretary Col Nasir Tung told ‘The News’ on Friday. The national pugilists have been training at the Pakistan Sports Complex Islamabad under AIBA three-star coach Arshad Hussain for the last few days.

“As many as 16 boxers are in the camp and six will join them soon. And when they join then after a week-long hard training we will be able to reach to a conclusion who should be picked for the Commonwealth Games,” Nasir informed.

The Commonwealth Games are slated to be held in Gold Coast, Australia, from April 4-15. The boxing competitions in the Commonwealth Games would be held from April 5 to 14 at the Oxenford Studios.

Pakistan will feature in ten disciplines in the quadrennial competitions. The four-member boxing squad will be accompanied by a coach and a manager.“We will also announce the names of coach and manager once we will make the boxers final,” said Nasir.

Arshad, the former international, is more likely to be picked as coach for the touring party as per rules a squad must carry an AIBA three-star coach.Pakistan has only two AIBA three-star coaches. The other is former international Ali Bakhsh, who has not been kept in the camp being held for the Australia’s event.

Nasir also revealed that Pakistan would field six male and three women boxers in the Asian Games slated to be hosted by Indonesia in Palembang and Jakarta from August 18 to September 2.

This would be the first time that Pakistani women would feature in the Asian Games. Pakistan’s women boxers had made their debut in the 2016 South Asian Games in India.Nasir also informed that women’s boxing was also included in the Fourth Inter-Provincial Games penciled in for March 18-20 at Peshawar.

“Three women weights including 51kg, 60kg and 75kg were added to the Inter-Provincial Games and three weights from the men’s section were reduced in the meeting held at Peshawar on Thursday,” Nasir disclosed.

Commonwealth Games would be a testing time for national pugilists who have been struggling in international circuit for the last few years.In the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games Pakistan’s now professional boxer Mohammad Waseem had claimed silver medal. And this time more pressure would be on the new stuff and it would be interesting to see how they deliver.Pakistan’s performance in the last year’s Islamic Games in Baku and Asian Championship in Tashkent was also not impressive.