COVID-hit Kaushik, Kumar to skip Asian Boxing C’ships in Dubai

Olympic-bound boxers Manish Kaushik and Satish Kumar will skip the Asian Boxing Championships (ABC) starting May 24 in Dubai as they haven’t fully recovered from COVID-19.

“It is good news for us that Kaushik’s latest COVID-19 report is negative. But since he hasn’t started normal training, it has been decided that he will skip the Asian meet,” a coach associated with the national camp said.

While Kaushik has qualified for Olympics in men’s 63kg, Kumar will compete in men’s 91 kg category. Both boxers are attending the national camp at the National Institute of Sports in Patiala.

The 25-year-old Kaushik began the 2021 season with an impressive victory in an invitational boxing tournament in Spain in March. According to the national team coach, Kaushik will resume training at moderate intensity this week.

“We will start at 30 to 40 per cent and gradually increase the load. We aren’t in a hurry as the main focus is to perform well at the Tokyo Olympic Games,” added the coach.

Kumar, 32, has already started training but is yet to train at 100 per cent intensity.

“He is not fit for competition so it was decided to give him a break,” added the coach.

The Indian team members will leave for Dubai on May 22 as their bouts start from May 24.

Excitement is building up as only five days are left until the start of the upcoming ASBC Asian Boxing Championship, which has been relocated from New Delhi, India to Dubai, with the same regulations and protocols.

The sport entries check will be held on May 22 while the Technical Meeting and the Official Draw is scheduled to take place on May 23.

The first competition day at the Le Meridien Hotel’s Grand Ballroom is May 24 and the final preparations are underway as the busy ASBC staffs want to make a wonderful event in Dubai.

The powerful Uzbek team arrived to Dubai with maximum number of boxers and their expectations are high, to be the No.1 in the ASBC Asian Elite Boxing Championships.

AIBA confirmed that at the very first time, the continental event will be a money prize competition for those who earn medals in Dubai.  

The new edition of the ABC will be the first continental event after one and half year of break due to the spread of COVID-19.

The last ASBC event was the Grand Slam Boxing Championships in Xiamen, China on December 2019.

The recent ABC was held in Bangkok, Thailand on April 2019.

The arrivals of the delegations to the ASBC Asian Elite Men’s and Women’s Boxing Championships are scheduled this week and after the sport entries check and official draw, the competition will be starting on the 24th of May.

The finals are scheduled on the May 31 in Dubai where twenty champions will be crowned.

The likes of Asian Games gold medallist Amit Panghal and six-time world champion MC Mary Kom will compete in the Asian Boxing Championships in Dubai this month after the Indian contingent got the travel clearances on Tuesday.

They will get the visas on arrival, Boxing Federation of India (BFI) president Ajay Singh said in a statement. The prevailing travel ban had created doubts over India’s participation. However, the BFI, the UAE government and Asian Boxing Confederation (ASBC) worked together to secure the team’s travel.

All the players, coaches, and support staff are already in a bio-secure bubble, said the statement. The Indian team is expected to reach Dubai on May 22, and the players will be issued visas on arrival.

“We are thankful to the UAE Government, Indian Ambassador to UAE, Pavan Kapoor and ASBC President Anas Alotaiba who have helped us in every possible way to secure the team’s travel to Dubai. This is a much-needed competition which is crucial for the final phase of training and preparation for the Olympics,” said Singh.

Earlier, the growing coronavirus crisis in India has forced the relocation of the Asian Boxing Championships to the UAE.

The tournament was due to be held at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi from May 21 to 31.