Chaos, delays mar opening day of Elite Boxing Nationals

Greater Noida, Jan 4 (PTI) The country's boxers were left anxiously waiting for hours as chaos marred the opening day of the senior boxing National Championships, which was delayed by more than four hours due to “logistical” issues here on Sunday.

The tournament, meant to mark a landmark moment with the men's and women's national championships being staged together for the first time, was scheduled to begin at 2pm at the Gautam Buddh University.

Instead, confusion and prolonged waiting defined the day.

The competition rings themselves were not ready. Three rings were scheduled to be in place, but only one was assembled by around 4pm and even that had to be reassembled due to a technical issue.

The first of the 80 bouts -- 38 women's and 42 men's -- finally got underway at 6:30 pm with the men's competition.

While, the women pugilists were left waiting even longer as there was still no word till 8pm as to when their bouts would begin and the third ring was yet to be assembled.

"The delay was because of certain logistical issues," Boxing Federation of India secretary general Pramod Kumar told PTI.

While the BFI maintained that the delay was due to logistical hurdles, sources familiar with the matter said it was a due to payment related issues.

"The vendor had not been paid. Work only began after the payment finally went through. There were no sponsors for the tournament either," a source said.

Reigning 48kg world champion Meenakshi Hooda, scheduled to fight in the opening bout in the women's section, was seen curled up on a yoga mat inside the hall late afternoon, conserving energy while waiting for word on when she would fight.

As the hours dragged on with no communication from organisers, she eventually left the stadium at 7pm.

Several other boxers tried to kill time, some plugged on their headphones, others paced the hall as hours ticked by with no announcement.

"Pata nahi kab shuru hoga, kuch bata bhi nahi rahe hain (We don't know when it will start, they aren’t telling us anything)," a boxer from Uttarakhand said.

"Abhi toh bohot time lagega, ring bhi nahi set up hua hai (It will take a long time, the ring isn’t even set up yet),” another boxer said.

Coaches warned that the prolonged delay could increase risk of injury as recovery would be hampered.

"Some boxers haven't eaten since breakfast because they were drawn for the early bouts. You can't fight on a full stomach, but this kind of uncertainty affects recovery and increases the risk of injury," a coach said.

Even the technical officials were left clueless.

"We are here since 12:30pm. We know nothing and we weren't even give the option to go back an rest till everything was set up," a technical official said. PTI APA APA BS BS