The Hindu : Sport / Boxing : Pugilists in danger of hitting a roadblock

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 11, 2007
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Sport - Boxing

Pugilists in danger of hitting a roadblock

Principal Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Indian boxers are in the danger of hitting a roadblock to the Olympics qualification.

The Sports Ministry has been withholding funds assigned to various sports federations asking them to submit utilisation certificates of tours conducted 15 to 17 years ago.

Already a few tours have been cancelled — the most glaring being the grounding of the World cadet wrestling team.

The axe now may fall on the Indian pugilists who have otherwise given good results in the international stage in the recent past.

The first casualty could be the trip to the World championship in Chicago from October 23 to November 3 — the first Olympic qualification tournament.

The Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) has already named nine boxers for the meet, but is yet to receive its longstanding dues from the Government, which owes Rs. 60 lakh to the federation.

“We have no money in our account and the tour will entirely depend on financial support from the Government,” IABF Secretary-General, Col. P.K. Muralidharan Raja, said.

The IABF had sent teams for several championships this year to prepare the boxers for the grind of the World championship.

Already its account is running into negative as it has taken the loans in the hope that grants for the tours will come by in time.

But the Sports Ministry has been delaying the release of funds for long despite having given verbal assurances to the IABF that the issue of utilisation certificates has been sorted out.

“Until we receive funds from the Government it would be difficult to send the team as the cost of boarding and lodging in the U.S. is very high,” Raja said.

With the trip to World championship in question, the proposed training camp in Kazakhstan for the selected boxers may not actually take off.

The boxers are currently camping at the NIS, Patiala, and training under Chief National coach, G.S. Sandhu.

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