NEW DELHI: Three leading Indian female boxers, all reigning national champions, Manju Rani, Shiksha Narwal and Poonam Poonia, have threatened to drag the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) to the court over their non-inclusion in the country’s 12-member squad for the upcoming IBA women’s World Boxing Championships, scheduled to be held here from March 15-26.
The trio has questioned the BFI’s selection policy for the Worlds, envisaged in consultation with the boxing’s high-performance director (HPD) Bernard Dunne and the other Indian coaches, where the squad was selected based on the boxers’ performance at a nearly three-week long national camp at NIS Patiala between January 20 and February 8.
According to the ‘evaluation test’ conducted over a period of three weeks, the national campers were “tested for performance in training to include endurance and S&C in the first week” and “for technical and tactical skills during sparring sessions in second and third weeks”. Based on the test, the campers were ranked in the order of 1-3 and those who topped the ranking chart were selected for the Worlds.
In Manju’s weight category of 48kg, Birmingham CWG gold medallist and two-time youth world champion, Nitu Ghanghas, was selected after she received the highest number of points from Dunne and chief national coaches, Bhaskar Bhatt and CA Kuttappa, for an overall tally of 634 points. Manju, a former World Championships silver medallist, accumulated a total of 564 points and was placed second ahead of the Bhopal Nationals finalist, S Kalaivani (486) from Tamil Nadu. Nitu had failed to qualify for the Nationals after she lost in the first round of the state championships in Hisar, competing in the 50kg representing SAI centre Bhiwani.
Similarly, in the 54kg division, Preeti, who made the cut for the Worlds, was ranked No.1 boxer ahead of Shiksha, who had secured the gold at the Nationals after defeating Himachal Pradesh’s Sunita Yadav. Ironically, Shiksha had defeated Preeti in the pre-quarters at the Nationals and the latter don’t have any international experience in the said weight category as her preferred division is 57kg, in which she has an Asian Championships bronze medal.
In the 60kg category, Youth World and Asian Championships medallist, Poonam, had created a flutter after defeating the Tokyo Olympian and the 2018 New Delhi Worlds bronze winner Simranjit Kaur Baatth in the finals to claim the gold at the Nationals. Birmingham CWG bronze medallist, Jaismine Lamboria, didn’t participate at the Nationals after submitting the medical despite the SSCB forwarding her name for the domestic meet. Just like in Manju’s case, Jaismine, too, was selected ahead of Poonam for the Worlds after the evaluation test. Simranjit was ranked third by the coaches.
Calling out the “injustice” meted out to them, the three boxers have written separate letters to BFI president Ajay Singh, SAI director general Sandip Pradhan and the sports ministry, requesting for their inclusion in the squad for the Worlds. They have given the BFI 48 hours to include their names, failing which the aggrieved boxers will approach the Delhi High Court and file a writ petition against the federation on Monday, with a plea to suspend the boxing body for its unfair and biased selection policy.
BFI will be hosting the Worlds for the third time, most ever by any country since the tournament's inception in the year 2001. A total of 350+ boxers from 74 countries, including 12 from the host nation, have registered so far for the biennial event.
Start a Conversation
Post comment