National boxing camp for Olympics qualifiers begins today

LAHORE: National boxers on Wednesday started assembling at the Railways Stadium here to kick-start their preparations for

the next year’s Olympics Qualifiers. “Yes, the boxers have started arriving here and from tomorrow we will begin training inshaAllah,” a senior team official told The News.

As many as 12 male and four female boxers are set to start their training for the 2024 Paris Olympics World Qualifying rounds which will be held in Itlay in March and Bangkok in May and June. Olympian Arshad Hussain and Tariq Siddiqui will be imparting training to the pugilists.

A Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) official told The News that Railways have given them the accommodation facility while it will be the responsibility of the federation to bear the diet expenses of the boxers.

“We had also written to the government but we have not received any response from there. It will cost us Rs1.2 million per month if we only meet the diet expenses of the boxers and coaches,” the official said.

“The things have become very tough since the devaluation of Pakistani currency and the sky-rocketing inflation in the country. Let’s see how to handle all these things,” the official said. The country’s major fighter Zohaib Rasheed is the main hope of Pakistan in the Qualifiers.

He is Asian bronze medallist and is capable of springing a surprise.He had fought well against the world champion in the quarter-finals in the Hangzhou Asian Games recently.

Pakistan last featured in the Olympics in 2004 in Athens. The Hangzhou Asian Games also served as the qualifying round for the Paris Olympics but there national boxers failed to advance beyond the quarter-finals.

The camp initially had been planned early this month and was then rescheduled for December 15. Due to various issues the PBF then took a few more days.