Indian boxers' preparations hit by visa delay

The Indian men's boxing team's preparations for the 2012 Olympic Games seems to have taken a slight knock after visa delays looks certain to force them to cancel their trip to France for a training-cum-preparation camp.

The training programme, which was supposed to start from the 10th of September and included top boxers like Vijender Singh and Dinesh Kumar among others, is uncertain, owing to difficulties in obtaining the visa from the Embassy of France.

The same team has been selected to represent India at the 2011 AIBA World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan which is scheduled to be held from September 22 to October 10. Since participation in this event is imperative IABF had applied for an Azerbaijan Visa before France.

"With the Indian contingent being granted visa for Azerbaijan on Saturday, September 3rd, 2011, the federation would only be able to apply for the Schengen visa on the following Monday.

The French consulate usually takes about a month in processing the visa paperwork. Though, extensive efforts are still being made by the IABF to ensure India's participation in the event," the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation said in a media release on Monday.

The Indian boxing women's team also suffered a similar fate. Due to visa issues, they were unable to participate in the Nikolaev International Boxing Tournament scheduled to be held at Nikolaev, Ukraine from September 05-11, 2011 and the International Boxing Women Tournament at Astana, Kazakhstan from September 13-17, 2011.