PBF expects silver, bronze medals in Commonwealth Games

KARACHI: A senior official of Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) on Friday said that the country was expected to snare one silver and two bronze medals in boxing in the Commonwealth Games penciled in for April 4-15 in Gold Coast, Australia.

“I hope that our pugilists will be able to claim one silver and two bronze,” the PBF secretary Col Nasir Tung told The News.The country’s mature boxers Awais Ali Khan (81kg), Ali Ahmed (60kg), Gul Zeb (69kg) and Syed Mohammad Asif (52kg) would represent Pakistan in the quadrennial competitions. Ali Ahmed belongs to Wapda while the rest of the boxers are from Army. The boxing competitions will be held from April 5-14. The managers meeting will be held on April 3. Arshad Hussain, AIBA’s three-star coach, will accompany the side as coach. In the last Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow in 2014 Pakistan’s now professional boxer Mohammad Waseem had claimed silver medal in the flyweight category when he lost to Andrew Moloney of Australia in the final. Nasir said that Awais and Asif are the fighters who can spring surprise. “I hope one of them will reach final in their respective weights,” Nasir said. He said that all the boxers were in good shape, and both physically and psychologically motivated. “They are in real element and will click InshaAllah if we got some good draws as in boxing draws are very vital,” the official said. The pugilists have been picked on the basis of their performance in the National Championship held in Lahore recently. This would be almost after one year when national boxers will compete in international circuit. Last time Pakistan had featured in the Islamic Games in Baku in May 2017 in which the country had badly failed to click in the discipline.

Awais Ali Khan, however, had featured in the World Championship in Hamburg, Germany, late last summer. He had exited after losing his first bout in the global, event. Awais has been carrying most of the weight of Pakistan’s boxing after the country’s senior pugilist Mohammad Waseem turned pro in early 2015. Under the former PBF president Doda Khan Bhutto Pakistan’s boxing had suffered a lot for long eight years. And Gold Coast event will now be a real test for the PBF which is being led by the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) secretary Khalid Mehmood.