Boxing
Women's boxing coach Bhaskar Bhatt resigns months before Asian Games
Indian women's national boxing team coach Bhaskar Bhatt has resigned less than three months before the Asian Games.
Bhaskar Bhatt with Nitu Ghanghas during the Women's Boxing World Championships. (Source: BFI Media)
The Indian women's boxing coach Bhaskar Bhatt resigned from the position just months before the upcoming 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.
Bhatt has been sent back to the Sports Authority of India's National Center of Excellence of Boxing in Rohtak, a source privy to the development confirmed to The Bridge.
Bhaskar Bhatt took over as the head coach of the national women's boxing team in November 2021. The national team has been doing well under his guidance, with India winning three medals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and four gold medals at the 2023 World Championships in Delhi.
The women's team also rose to world rank three, accumulating 36300 ranking points, only behind Kazakhstan (48100) and Uzbekistan (37600), surpassing powerhouses such as USA and Cuba, during the period.
A source close to the development revealed that there had been differences between Bhatt and the High-Performance Director Bernard Dunne regarding the new selection policy,
Bhatt, though refused to comment when contacted.
The new selection policy by the Boxing Federation of India has scrapped the trials and put in an evaluation process during national camp to select the boxers.
The new selection policy was in the news as three elite boxers had challenged it in court just before the Women's World Championships in March. The Delhi high court asked the federation to submit records of the evaluation process but said it would not interfere in the selection.
The Asian Games will be the first qualifying event for the Paris Olympics 2024 as IOC has banned the International Boxing Federation, and the Olympic Council of Asia will conduct the boxing events in Hangzhou, China.
With less than three months to go before the marquee continental event, the federation will have to make sure the morale in the national camp remains positive despite the exit of the chief coach.
