EXCLUSIVE: Boxer Amit Panghal threatens to pull out of national camp

Miffed at the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) and Sports Authority of India (SAI) for not providing him a coach and sparring partners which has hampered his training for Tokyo Olympics, Panghal threatened to pull out of national camp if his demands are not met.

Hyderabad: World Championships silver-medallist Amit Panghal on Tuesday lashed out at Boxing Federation of India (BFI) and Sports Authority of India (SAI) for not providing him a coach and sparring partners which has hampered his training for Tokyo Olympics. He also threatened to pull out of national camp if his demands are not met.

Panghal, one of India's hopefuls to bring home medal, said he had put in a request to BFI and SAI in December but did not receive any reply from them.

"I had written to BFI and SAI but there has been no response yet. I submitted my application in December but nobody responded. I have requested them several times and they are not even specifying the reason as to why they are not providing me coach," the world number one (52kg) boxer said in a telephonic conversation with ETV Bharat.

The Asian Games champion also accused them of playing "dirty politics" and threatened to pull out of the national camp if his demands are not met.

The Haryana trailblazer has already qualified for his maiden Olympic Games in Tokyo and if his recent performances are anything to go by, he is touted among the favourites to bring India a gold medal, a feat India has not achieved since Bindra's 2008 Olympic glory.

"It has hampered my training for the Tokyo Olympics. I achieved so much as a sportsperson and they are playing dirty politics with me. It's a contact game and we need three to four partners. That's a must.

"How will we do our fitness session if we are not provided with all these facilities? I requested BFI several times. I will request them again when I come back to India. I will not participate in the training camp if they don't provide me a coach," the 25-year-old said.

The boxer recently won a Gold medal, defeating American Rene Abraham 3-0 in his first competition after coronavirus-forced lockdown, at the Alexis Vastine International Boxing Tournament in Nantes, France.

He is currently based in Assisi, Italy as part of a 15-member India contingent that has travelled for a 52-day training trip to Europe.

When asked about his win, he said, "I have played after a long time. I had practiced during quarantine and it was good to see how successful were those training sessions. I got to know how much hardwork do I need to put in. Overall, it was a good experience."

On being asked about the difference between training facilities in India and Europe, he said, "I wasn't able to train well in India. I was training without a sparring partner but when I arrived here, I was provided one. But coronavirus cases have increased here and I am training alone at the moment."

When ETV Bharat contacted BFI, the official refused to answer. A request was sent to their official e-mail address and they are yet to respond to the question.

SAI was also contacted on the matter as they are footing the bill as far as national camps are concerned. Their reply is awaited.

Earlier this year, Boxing Federation including all other sports bodies were derecognised by the sports ministry as per the orders of Delhi High court.

Later, 27 federations last month were granted recognition and 13 more were asked to hold elections till the end of the year, including BFI.

The derecognition to all the federations meant BFI wasn't capable of making any decision pertaining to boxers, including national camps and other decisions while SAI took over the matter.

--By Ayushmaan Pandey