Boxing has been part of every Olympics since 1920 and will feature at next year’s Paris Games.
Indian boxing contingent won four Paris Olympic quotas but all were by women – Nikhat Zareen (50kg) , Preeti Pawar (54kg), Parveen Hooda (57kg) and Lovlina Borgohain (75kg).
After a bittersweet Asian Games campaign that resulted to four Olympic quotas but none in the men’s section, the Boxing Federation of India will decide the future plan of action next week with only two more Paris Games qualifiers left.
The Indian boxing contingent met its target of winning three to six Paris Olympic quotas by winning four.
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With the next Olympic qualifier — the World Qualification Tournament slated to take place in Busto Arzizio, Italy from February 29 to March 12 –, the high performance unit, led by Bernard Dunne, has put forth some proposals, including calling last year’s men’s World Youth Championships medallists directly into the senior national camp.
“The HPD has sent a few proposals. We will be conducting a meeting in the coming week where we will discuss all of them,” a BFI official told PTI.
“Those youth boxers who won medals last year are in senior category now. They will have to compete and perform at the upcoming Nationals to enter the camp because it has been a year since their performance at the Worlds.
“We need to see and evaluate their performance now and that will happen at the Nationals,” he added.
The men’s senior National Championships are scheduled to take place in Shillong from November 25.
“The margin in the performance between senior and youth is immense. There is no match between the two,” said a coach in the know of things, hinting that even if the youth boxers get the nod, they may not be sent for the qualifiers.