Olympic Preparation: Around 3.57 crore spent on boxers

The Sport Ministry has spent an amount of Rs 3.57 crore on the training and foreign exposure of Indian boxers under 'Operation Excellence' for London Olympics 2012.

Out of this, a sum of Rs 2.48 crore was spent on conducting National Coaching Camps for training of 58 boxers (40 men and 18 women) who were aided by 19 coaches (including 1 foreign coach) and 7 supporting personnel.

The remaining amount of Rs 1.09 crore was utilised on providing foreign exposure to boxers. Four camps each were conducted for men and women pugilists of duration of 231 days and 178 days respectively till December, 2011.

The training began in March, 2011, in order to optimize India's chances to win multiple medals in the games. Also, international exposure was provided to 14 boxers (9 men and 5 women) in order to enhance their chances in London Olympics.

The Sports Minister also asked the Indian Boxing Federation (IBF) secretary general Brigadier P K Muralidharan Raja to submit all the requests for gadgets and equipments as well as for foreign training of players, if any, within 2-3 days so that the Steering Committee clears all such proposals received from various Sports Federations in its meeting scheduled for 6th February.

Raja said so far four boxers have booked their berth for London Olympics namely L Devendro Singh (49 Kg), Jai Bhagwan (60 Kg), Manoj Kumar (64 Kg) and Vikash Krishan (69 Kg).

He further said two qualification events for Olympics still remain -- one each for men and women boxers -- and the Indian contingent is hopeful of securing more berths.

These events are namely Asian Continental Olympic Qualifying Boxing Championship for male boxers scheduled to be held in April in Astana (Kazakastan), and World Women Boxing championship for female boxers scheduled to be held in May in Qinhuangdao (China).

Five Indian boxers had participated in the Beijing Olympics in 2008, namely Vijender Singh (75), Jitender Singh (51 kg), Akhil Kumar (54 kg), A L Lakra (57kg) and Dinesh Kumar (81 kg). Vijender had won the bronze medal.