PBF wants boxers to train in China for South Asian Games

KARACHI: Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) aims to send its leading fighters to China for training ahead of the 13th South Asian Games slated to be held in Kathmandu and Pokhara cities of Nepal from December 1-10.

“We want to send the top boxers to China. It will be a trip for a few weeks ahead of the South Asian Games. I talked to China’s Wu Di, head of the China’s BMA, in Thailand last month,” PBF secretary Col Nasir Tung told ‘The News’ in an interview on Monday. “You know it would be an expensive exercise to send the squad abroad at a time when the federation is facing financial crunch. For the last 11 months we have not received any grant from the government. How many boxers we send depends on the resources available,” Nasir said.

Wu Di became vice-president of Asian boxing governing body (ASBC) last month. Nasir was quick to add that the boxers would not be able to gain rhythm if they were not provided quality sparring partners.

Pakistan last month fielded only Amir Masood in the Asian Boxing Championship in Bangkok due to financial issues. The PBF recently held National Boxing Championship in Islamabad. It has decided to invite the finalists of all weight categories and a few others to the camp which the federation plans to hold after Eid-ul-Fitr.

“It would not be good to hold a camp in Ramadan. We have decided to hold the camp five days after Eid. We have requested the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and hopefully the Board will provide us the camp at Islamabad within our desired time-frame,” Nasir said.

He said that besides the 20 finalists, three or four fighters who were good but failed to perform in the recently held national event in Islamabad would be invited to the camp. Nasir said that they had no good fighter in the super heavyweight. Olympian Ahmed Ali had been winning national titles but he was not fit for fighting in international circuit due to his growing age.

Nasir said that he was impressed by Anees Taj, a young fighter from Azad Kashmir, who lost to Sanaullah of WAPDA in the 91kg final in the national event. “We have got one in middleweight and a couple of other boxers who could be converted into great fighters,” Nasir said.

“We are making every effort to bring in sponsors but no one wants to back any sport other than cricket in Pakistan,” he said. He said that they would keep working hard, hoping for the situation to get better. To a query about foreign coach ahead of the South Asian Games, Nasir said that it was a lengthy process and it was not likely that they would be able to hire any one ahead of SAG. “We do want to hire someone but it is not easy. Let’s see what happens,” Nasir said. About protests during the National Championship, Nasir said that no one would be spared and strict disciplinary action would be taken against those who violated rules.