India to host South Asian Boxing Championship

The Boxing Federation of India also announced its calendar for the 2017-18 season in its executive committee meeting on Tuesday

The South Asian Boxing Championship could see a potential blockbuster clash between India and arch-rival Pakistan.

The Boxing Federation of India (BFI) on Tuesday approved its calendar for the 2017-18 season in its executive committee meeting.

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 that will take place in Vishakhapatnam from October 23-30. It will be followed by junior women championship in Rohtak in the first week of November.

Sub junior men and women will be seen proving their mettle from December 12-20 in Pune, while elite women will be seen packing a punch from December 18-24tin Trivandrum with the youth men vying for glory in the first week of January in Punjab.

It was also announced that India for the first time will be hosting the South Asian Championship from December 6-10 in Guwahati and the India International Open tournament, New Delhi in the third week of January for the elite men and women.

While the South Asian Championship could see a potential blockbuster clash between India and arch-rival Pakistan, as a host of other SAARC countries including Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh amongst others are expected to take part. The international tournament will see countries such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine among other top boxing nations participating in the Championship. 

The 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.

Besides, BFI appointed men’s foreign coach Santiago Nieva as the new Performance Director along with S.R. Singh as the head coach for elite men. Shiv Singh will be in charge of elite women. G. Manoharan will be responsible for the youth men's team, while Bhaskar Bhatt will be in charge of youth women.