NEW DELHI: India will be hosting the South Asian boxing Championship for the first time in Guwahati from December 6 to 10, Boxing Federation of India (BFI) said after its executive committee meeting today. "It was also announced that India for the first time will be hosting the South Asian Championship from December 6th-10th in Guwahati and India International Open tournament, New Delhi in the third week of January for the elite men and women during the fifth executive committee meeting of the federation which was attended by BFI executive committee members and was chaired by the President Mr. Ajay Singh," BFI said in a release.
India will take on their arch-rivals Pakistan during the tournament, which will also see a host of other SAARC countries participating including Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh amongst others. The international tournament will see countries like Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine among other top boxing nations participating. BFI, which completed one year of its existence, has locked the national calendar well in advance to give chance to the boxers to prepare well; with the first tournament being the elite men championship taking place in Vishakhapatnam from October 23rd-30th followed by junior women in Rohtak in the first week of November. Sub junior men and women will be seen proving their mettle from December 12th-20th in Pune, while elite women will be seen packing a punch from December 18th-24th in Trivandrum, youth men will vie for glory in the first week of January in Punjab.
The executive committee also outlined the federation's decision to streamline the qualification criteria for the coaches, referee judges (RJ). All the coaches and RJs henceforth will have to make compulsory participation in the state level tournaments as part of the qualification criteria for international tournaments. BFI will also be for the first time initiating a grading system as well on the lines of AIBA's star rating qualifications for coaches, referee judges.
BFI also announced that Capt. G Manoharan will be responsible for the Youth Men's team; Bhaskar Bhatt will be in charge of the Youth (Women) squad and MS Dhaka will be in charge of junior men. It was also announced that RK Sacheti has unanimously been elected as the new Executive Director of the federation.