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Thursday March 28, 2024

Newly-appointed Cuban coach to reach Pakistan next week

By Alam Zeb Safi
December 13, 2015

KARACHI: The newly-hired Cuban coach Comas Aguilera Bernardo is expected to arrive in Pakistan next week to take charge of the boxing camp here at the PSB Coaching Centre, Pakistan Boxing Federation’s (PBF) secretary Iqbal Hussain told ‘The News’ from Hyderabad on Saturday.

He said that the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) had told him that everything had been finalised and the Cuban will arrive in a few days. “I cannot confirm the exact date of his arrival as his ticket has not been confirmed yet,” he said.

Iqbal was happy with the development. “It’s a positive move and we will now be able to make good preparation for the Asian qualifying round for Olympics,” he said.

The Asian qualifying round for Olympics will be held in China in March 2016.

Pakistan are expected to field boxers in all ten weight categories in the qualifiers, which are the last chance for the national pugilists to qualify for the next year’s Rio Olympics.

Comas is an AIBA three-star coach. Pakistani coaches Ali Bakhsh and Arshad Hussain, both AIBA three-star, will also be working with the Cuban.

However, Iqbal said it would be decided later as to who would travel with the Cuban on foreign tours. “We would also look to send our boxers to Cuba for a couple of months’ training ahead of the qualifiers,” the secretary said. “We have chosen Cuba as their boxing standards are very good. Recently, three of their boxers won gold medals in the World Championships in Doha,” he added.

Iqbal told that they had also written to the PSB for this purpose. “The tour is very important as we have young boxers who need exposure and tough training,” he said.

He was quick to add that the PBF also planned to buy Cuban boxers to do sparring with the Pakistani boxers.

“They have good stuff and we also plan to acquire the services of a few good Cuban boxers during our tour there to train with our boys,” Iqbal said. He added it was his utmost desire to see Pakistan return to the Olympic fold.

“I cannot wait for 2020 Olympics. I will leave no stone unturned in providing top training to my boxers,” he stated.

Pakistani boxers last featured in the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Iqbal said he would like to have maximum boxers present in the camp before the coach lands. “Currently the boxers from the PAF, Punjab and Sindh are in the camp. Navy’s boxers will come by Monday and Army’s boxers are given December 15 as the deadline,” he informed. WAPDA’s boxers will come after their Inter-Unit event which commences from December 28. Syed Asif (52kg) from the Higher Education Commission (HEC), who won gold in the recently held National Championship, will come after the Inter-University event starting from December 25,” he appended.

Besides the Olympics qualifiers, Pakistani boxers will also feature in the South Asian Games (SAG) to be held in the Indian cities of Guwahati and Shillong from February 6-16.

“Our boxers will be fielded in the SAG in seven weight categories, while women will feature in three weights, including 51kg, 60kg and 75kg,” Iqbal said. “But the PSB has not included women in its plan and I cannot confirm whether they will be able to participate in the biennial event or not,” the PBF official added. The light heavyweight, heavyweight and super heavyweight have been excluded by the SAG organisers from the list of weights in which men had to feature.