CHENNAI: It's certain that the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) will miss the June-10 national camp deadline. With less than a week remaining, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) is yet to give its nod. On top of that its high-performance director for the women’s team Raffaele Bergamasco has flown back to Italy on Wednesday. He is expected to be back after a couple of weeks.
According to BFI, Bergamasco has left at a time when the camps are scheduled to start because his wife is unwell. “He is expected to join us in time for the national camp,” said BFI executive director RK Sacheti. In any case, camps are expected to get postponed for the time being. “We have sent our proposal to SAI and awaiting their response,” he said. The Italian coach was trapped at IG Stadium all alone for close to a month due to the lockdown from March 17 before he was shifted to the Nehru Stadium complexes in April.
It is understood that SAI will be discussing the proposal with the sports ministry before deciding on a date. Since the boxers would be travelling to NIS Patiala in Punjab, the local government also must be consulted before allowing athletes to begin the camp.
“We are in touch with SAI, who will have a discussion with the sports ministry and other stakeholders, before confirming time and date for resumption of national camp,” said Sacheti. “We are expecting confirmation by next week. This takes time because besides our standard operating procedure (SOP) and SAI’s, state government guidelines also must be followed.”
The quarantine policy and other Covid-19 guidelines differ from state to state. The BFI in its SOP has made it mandatory for medical checkup and quarantine for at least three-five days for all boxers. The SAI SOP too mandates athletes joining its complexes to undergo Covid tests and quarantine if necessary.
Since boxing is a contact sport, only training could be allowed initially. A decision on sparring and boxing bouts will be taken at a later date. Though a date has not been finalised, the federation is hoping some kind of activity could begin by end of the month.