Big-ticket boxing meet in India after 11 years

The youth women’s world championships, to be held in Guwahati from November 19, will showcase pugilists who may earn tickets to Tokyo 2020.

The tournament is significant not just for the medals but also for the fact that it will double up as a qualifier for the Youth Olympic Games next year in Buenos Aires.

 

The team is yet to be finalised but the fanfare was hard to miss as Boxing Federation of India unveiled an official song, a logo, and a mascot for the first World Championship to be held in the country in over a decade, featuring close to 200 boxers from 38 countries.

The youth women’s world championships, to be held here from November 19, will mark the return of big-ticket boxing to India, which last hosted a world championship in 2006 — for senior women.

 

Read: India's boxing coach optimistic of grabbing medals at World C'ship

“The boxers we will see in this tournament will be the ones who will go on to represent the country in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,” said BFI President Ajay Singh at the “official launch” of the championships, where Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal was also present.

Sonowal used the opportunity to declare that he intends to make the state capital the new sports capital of the country.

Assam’s famed one-horn Rhino was expectedly picked the official mascot, named ‘Gappi’, while a peppy number sung by Sunidhi Chauhan and composed by Shaan — ‘we’re here to knock you out’ — was unveiled as the official song for the event.

Assam’s famed one-horn Rhino was expectedly picked the official mascot, named ‘Gappi’.

 

The tournament is significant not just for the medals but also for the fact that it will double up as a qualifier for the Youth Olympic Games next year in Buenos Aires.

“I can’t say how many but India will definitely be winning a good number of medals here. The girls have come along quite well,” India’s first ever foreign coach for youth women boxers, Raffaele Bergamasco, told PTI.

The team is not expected to be out before the November 17 deadline set by the International Boxing Association (AIBA).

The championship is the first of three world championships that India would be hosting in the course of next three years.

Next year, the country will play host to the senior women’s world championships, before conducting the marquee event for men in 2021. Both the showpiece tournaments will be hosted by national capital Delhi.