Three women boxers to train for Olympics at ASI Pune
Six-time world champion MC Mary Kom, along with two other Olympic-bound boxers, will train at the Army Sports Institute in Pune leading up to the Tokyo Games after the national camp for women in Delhi had to be disbanded owing to COVID-19 cases among pugilists and support staff. The other two women boxers are Lovlina Borgohain (69 kg) and Simranjit Kaur (60 kg).
Boxers will be placed in three separate groups
Mary Kom (51 kg) will join Borgohain, who is already at the facility. Kaur will train after completing the COVID-19 post-recovery isolation. The boxers will be placed in three separate groups with two sparring partners each to ensure the minimum infection risk. Pooja Rani (75kg), who has also qualified for Olympics, will continue to train at her base--Bellary's Inspire Institute of Sports.
Mary Kom's coach is currently in isolation
Mary Kom will not have the immediate company of her coach and former boxer Chhote Lal Yadav, who continues to be in isolation after testing COVID-19 positive last month. Yadav is expected to join the camp after returning a negative test in next few days.
Asian Championship to start from May 21
The next big assignment for the players is the Asian Championship, which will begin on May 21. It had to be shifted from Delhi to Dubai because of the COVID-19 surge in India. "It's a huge competition and one that we desperately need before Olympics. We need to test ourselves in the Championship," Mary Kom said.
21 campers had tested positive on April 14
Indian women boxing's High-Performance Director Raffaele Bergamasco and head coach Mohammed Ali Qamar were among the 21 campers who tested COVID-19 positive at Delhi's Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium on April 14. Bergamasco and Qamar have since recovered but will not join the camp.
'Focus is on utilizing the time we have in hand'
While Bergamasco is currently in Italy to attend a personal engagement, Qamar is completing his post-recovery isolation at home in Kolkata right now. "With the Asian Championships and the Olympic Games approaching, our focus will be to utilize the time we have in hand and maximize the training ahead of these two events," said Hemanta Kalita, General Secretary, Boxing Federation of India (BFI).
Training plan prepared for players to minimize infection risk
Kalita said, "Considering the safety of players, coaches, and support staff, we have created a training plan for players in separate clusters to minimize infection risk." "These are tough times but we also have a job at hand and we are ensuring our boxers can get back to camp and start training and work to get the best results possible," Kalita added.
Tokyo Olympics is scheduled to start on July 23
The ASI camp has been approved by the Sports Authority of India till the end of July. The Tokyo Olympics is scheduled to start on July 23. Apart from the Olympic bound, youth world champion Arundhati Choudhary (69kg), along with Manju Rani (48kg), Sonia Lather (57kg), Lalbuatsaihi (64kg), Shashi Chopra (64kg), and Jasmine (57kg) have been picked for the training camp.
