PBF plans to hold National Boxing from November 30

KARACHI: In order to pick probable players for the next year’s Commonwealth Games and Asian Games camp, Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) plans to hold the National Boxing Championship (both men and women) from November 30 to December 6 at DHA Lahore.

“Yes, today we issued a circular about the National Championship which we are going to hold in Lahore from November 30 to December 6,” PBF secretary Col (retd) Nasir Tung told ‘The News’ on Sunday. “It will be determined later whether it is to be held in an indoor hall or in an open area. The PBF is holding it on its own," he added.

“This will be the first time in history when winners will be handed over belts besides gold medals,” Nasir said.

Because of strained relations with the government, the PBF is facing financial issues. The government does not recognise the PBF being headed by Khalid Mehmood, who is also the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) secretary general.

The government believes that AIBA also does not recognise the PBF. It refers to AIBA’s letter of March 18, 2021, in which AIBA directed the PBF to repeat elections within three months, warning that otherwise PBF may be suspended.

However, after the deadline of June 18, AIBA kept silent and took no further step which shows that the PBF is still recognised by AIBA.

“Yes, we are recognised by AIBA. We fielded Syed Kamil, a young boxer, in the 60 kilogrammes weight category in the AIBA World Championship in Serbia. We are also going to attend AIBA Congress in Moscow in December,” Nasir said.

Kamil lost his first round bout against a Greek boxer on October 27. “He is young and plays very well. It’s good that at least we sent a boxer to the World Championship. He belongs to Islamabad and had finished with a silver medal in the 2019 National Games held in Peshawar. He was also on the PBF radar for the Tokyo Olympics World Qualifiers but the qualifiers were later cancelled,” Nasir said.

Nasir said that 39 boxers (men), three in each weight categories, and 15 women boxers (three in each five weights) would be picked for the camp. He added that five coaches would be selected to train the boxers. He said that the camp would be held by the end of January.

“We have got a quota of four male boxers and one woman for the Commonwealth Games,” Nasir said.

The Commonwealth Games will be held in Birmingham from July 28 to August 8. China will host Asian Games in September.

Nasir said the boxers for the Asian Games would be decided later depending on the resources. Nasir said that keeping in view financial issues it was unlikely that they would be able to send boxers abroad for training. “If we get some support we will also provide foreign training to our boxers for a few days. What our boxers need is solid sparring ahead of international events. We will try our best to manage it for them,” the official was quick to add.

Nasir said that experienced boxer Awais Ali Khan from Army has been shortlisted by AIBA for the AIBA athletes’ commission.

He said that the professional league which they had planned had been delayed because of Covid. NCOC has lifted restrictions from full body contact sports.