I am guilty of not taking a stand earlier: BFI chief Ajay Singh

With the successful completion of the women’s national on Thursday, the Boxing Federation of India president Ajay Singh was a relieved man.

That said, his job is not done just yet and the onus now is on the federation to host all pending nationals at the earliest to make up for lost time.

Interestingly, Ajay Singh did admit to being guilty of not taking a stand earlier.

'I will make it right'

“Maybe I should have taken the step earlier. I am guilty for that. But we have had 54 championships, three world championships and two AIBA congress, something that’s never been done. In all these years, every national championship was held on time. It is unfortunate but I will make it right,” BFI chief Ajay Singh told The Bridge on the final day of the recently concluded senior women’s national championship in Greater Noida.

Singh confirmed that the Youth National Championship will take place next month in Greater Noida, followed by the Junior Nationals in Nainital in May. The sub-junior nationals will be held in Delhi or Goa in June.

“We will not miss anything now. We will conduct junior and sub-junior championships. We had 188 athletes from 25 teams participating at the women’s nationals and the standard of boxing was fantastic. It is clear that India is a super power in women’s boxing,” he said.

“Some states actively prevented its boxers from participating, the players came anyway. They are not at fault, they just became victims. We will give opportunities to everybody,” Singh said.

Select boxers in each weight category from the national championship will be picked to join the camp, the dates of which will soon be announced. The federation will now be focusing on building a pool of talented boxers with an eye on upcoming international tournaments.

“Four boxers from the national championship will join the national camp. We plan to induct more boxers along the way including the REC finalists. And then, another two from the Chief of Army Staff Championship for men and yet unnamed championship for women. That way, we will have eight boxers and from that we will pick four boxers to represent us in the national camps,” he said.

Delayed election

The BFI elections, earlier scheduled for March 28, hit legal roadblocks after two High Courts ordered changes to the electoral college, delaying the election process.

Singh shared that politics should not interfere with sports.

“Politics should never come in the way of sports and we should ensure boxing continues and they don’t miss any opportunity. My job as BFI chief is to appoint a returning officer and we have appointed one. He paused the elections due to multiplicity of orders and conflicting orders. We have moved to the superior court and have filed PILs in the division bench of Himachal Court and division bench of Delhi HC.

“Meanwhile, we continue to do our work,” he concluded.

It must be noted, however, that the Indian women pugilists have not had any international exposure since the Paris Olympics and have missed the Asian Championships, Strandja Memorial and the Women's World Championships.

The men’s team, on the other is in Brazil for the first stage of World Boxing Cup starting March 30. Interestingly, this an even that the women’s team missed out on owing to delays in the conduct of the national championships.