In a bid to find new talent in boxing ahead of the second Paris Olympics qualifier in February, the Boxing Federation of India has proposed to call World Youth Championships medallists directly into the national elite camp and also give them the opportunity to be part of the evaluation process provided they fulfil the criteria.
This is a big change in the selection policy as national campers have so far been picked from the Senior National Championships and evaluated for selection into the national team.
However, after the performance of the men’s team at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, where they failed to win even a single quota for the Paris Olympics, the High Performance Unit, led by HPD Bernard Dunne, felt they need to look beyond the present pool in some of the weight categories and suggested that talented youth boxers be made part of the national camp. The three world youth medallists to be called for the national camp are — Vishvanath Suresh (48kg), Ashish (54kg) and Vanshaj (63.5kg). The policy has to be cleared by the BFI Executive Council.
“The idea is that youth boxers should have a pathway to make a successful transition to senior international level. Once they join the camp, the coaches will assess and monitor their progress. Some of them might have to change their weight class to Olympic weights. All these things will be looked into and they will be eligible for selection evaluation for the World Qualification Tournament for Paris Olympics (in Italy from Feb 29),” said a BFI official.
Also, the three World Championships Medallists — Deepak Bhoria (51kg), Md Hussamuddin (57kg), and Nishant Dev (71kg) and Asian Games bronze medallist Narender Berwal will get a direct entry into the national camp, it has been learnt.
The rest of the pool will be picked from the National Championships scheduled in Shillong from Nov 25. The top three boxers in each of the seven men’s Olympic weight categories will make the cut, taking the total number of national campers in elite men to 28. It has also been suggested that the camps for Olympic weight class and non-Olympic weight class be held separately.
For the women boxers, the BFI has also proposed an early start of camp for the four Olympic quota winners — Nikhat Zareen (50kg), Preeti Pawar (54kg), Parveen Hooda (57kg) and Lovlina Borgohain (75kg), so that they can begin their preparation for Paris Olympics right away.
In these four weight classes, only the gold and silver medallists from the Senior National Championships will be added to the elite women’s camp. The two other weight categories — 60kg and 66kg– where India is yet to secure an Olympic quota, three top boxers from the Nationals will be picked. Besides, four women youth medallists will added to the national camp pool .