Pakistan boxers fail again in Bangkok

KARACHI: Pakistan’s pathetic run in the Asian Boxing Championship continued on Monday when two more boxers were shown the exit door in Bangkok, which almost ended the country’s hopes of qualifying for the World Championships in Doha.
Out of eight boxers Pakistan fielded, seven have exited.
All eyes are now set on heavyweight boxer Mehmood-ul-Hassan who will play his 91kg quarter-final against Tajikistan’s Qurbanov Jakhan on Tuesday (today).
Mehmood had defeated Mongolia’s Daivii Otgonbayar 3-0 in the pre-quarter-final last week.
If Mehmood loses the fight, Pakistan will have no representation at the World Championships which serve as qualifiers for the next year’s Rio Olympics.
Pakistan’s Gul Zeb was the first casualty on the sixth day of the event when he was undone in the light welterweight pre-quarter-final by Kyrgyzstan’s Ermek Sakenov.
In the light heavyweight pre-quarter-final, Awais Ali Khan lost to second seed Kim Hyeongkyu of Korea.
Awais had moved into the pre-quarter-finals after beating Nevil Ajith Gallage of Sri Lanka in the preliminaries the other day.
Qadir Khan, Nadir Baloch, Mohibullah, Wasim Arshad and Mohammad Tanvir had already been put out of the event.
“It’s another sad day for us,” Pakistan’s coach Ali Bakhsh, who trained these boxers, told ‘The News’. “Now we need a surprise win from Mehmood. He is a good boxer but his rival will also be tough. If he manages a few heavy punches he can do anything,” said Ali, an AIBA 3-star coach.
Ali could not proceed with the boxers to Bangkok because his passport had been sent to Dubai for getting visa of Samoa, which will host the Commonwealth Youth Games later this week.
As per AIBA rules, it is mandatory for a nation to have a 3-star coach for international competitions.
As Mohammad Liaquat, who is accompanying the side in Bangkok, is a one-star coach, Pakistan had to seek the support of 3-star coaches from Syria and Nepal for the competitions.
If Pakistan failed to book a berth in the World Championships, they would make their last attempt for Olympic berth in the Asian qualifying round to be held early next year.
Pakistan faced selection problems for the Asian Championship when WAPDA chose not to release key boxers who have a lot of international experience.