Majority of the male boxers that competed in season opening World Boxing Cup in Brazil will skip the Thailand exposure tour. Thailand Open will be season first international exposure tour for female boxers

The Indian boxing team in both men and women will compete at the upcoming Thailand Open International Boxing Tournament starting May 24. in Bangkok, one of the officials associated with the development said.

“The eight days long tournament will give an opportunity to the senior Indian boxing team to further polish their skills ahead of this year’s World Boxing Championships in September,” the official added. “The members of the men’s team that competed at the World Boxing Cup in Brazil will skip the selection trials for the Thailand tour and second bench will be considered for the international exposure.”

To prepare the Indian team for the Thailand Open, Boxing Federation of India (BFI) has organised a three-week long camp at Patiala’s National Institute of Sports (NIS) in Punjab.

The Thailand Open will be the season’s first international event for the female boxers. The women’s team missed the season opening World Boxing Cup in Brazil because the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) didn’t conduct the national meet and was unable to shortlist the players.

For the national camp in Patiala, BFI has selected more than 100 boxers, including female athletes. During the camp apart from shortlisting the national team for Thailand open, the coaches will also prune the list of probables for the next camp. “Bronze medallists in each of the weight categories in men and women’s group of the two national meets held recently will compete against each other. The top two will be shortlisted for the next camp,” one of the boxing coaches said. “The winners of gold and silver at the national meet will get an automatic berth in the next camp.”

The national governing body of boxing in the country is functioning on an ad-hoc basis as the elections of the office bearer scheduled to be held earlier in February-March couldn’t be held due to legal battle. The fresh dates are yet to be announced.

Meanwhile the newly formed World Boxing body constituted an interim panel earlier in April to run the day to day affairs of boxing in India. The interim panel headed by Ajay Singh, former BFI president, ensured that Indian teams will compete at the international level and also domestic competitions will be held regularly.

Indian team recently finished second overall with four gold medals at the just concluded Asian U15 and U17 meet in Amman, Jordan.