National Boxing Championships: Rings not ready in time as delays, poor planning mar opening day | Boxing News

Representative image (PTI Photo)

NEW DELHI: The country’s top boxers were left cooling their heels for hours as chaos and confusion marked the opening day of the Elite Men and Women National Boxing Championships in Greater Noida on Sunday, with the start of competition delayed by more than four hours due to what officials described as “logistical” issues.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!The tournament, slated to be a landmark event with the men’s and women’s national championships being staged together for the first time, was scheduled to get underway at 2 pm at Gautam Buddha University. Instead, prolonged uncertainty and poor preparedness defined the day.

Even basic infrastructure was missing. Three competition rings were meant to be operational on the opening day, but only one was assembled by around 4 pm. That too had to be dismantled and reassembled after a technical fault was detected. As a result, the first of the 80 scheduled bouts — 38 in the women’s section and 42 in the men’s — finally began only at 6.30 pm. Women boxers were left waiting even longer. As of 8 pm, there was still no clarity on when their bouts would begin, with the third ring yet to be assembled and no official communication forthcoming.Sources said that the organisers could not set up the rings and other equipment overnight as the gate of the venue, Gautam Budh University in Greater Noida, was locked.

“There were some communication issues, and the organisers did not know that the University gates would be closed for the night. So, they had to wait till the next day to set up everything,” a source said. A source, familiar with the matter, also said that the delay “actually” stemmed from payment-related issues. “Work only began after payment was made to the vendor,” the source added.However, Boxing Federation of India (BFI) secretary general Pramod Kumar told PTI, “The delay was because of certain logistical issues.”The prolonged wait took a visible toll on athletes. Several boxers attempted to pass the time inside the arena — some plugged into headphones, others paced the hall — as the hours ticked by without announcements.The national championships are already delayed as it was to be held in late December last year.Top Indian pugilists, including world champion Jaismine Lamboria, Olympian Nikhat Zareen and several other World Boxing Cup medallists, are in the fray. The competition, which will conclude on Jan 10, will see the men’s and women’s events being held simultaneously at the same venue, with nearly 600 boxers from across the country set to participate in 10 weight categories each in both men and women sections.Other prominent boxers, in action in the women’s section, are reigning world champion Minakshi Hooda, Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain and Asian Games bronze medallist Preeti Pawar. Among men, World Boxing Cup Finals gold medallists Hitesh Gulia and Sachin Siwach, silver medallist Abhinash Jamwal and World Championships silver medallist Amit Panghal are fighting for top honours.