Indian pugilists begin final preparation for Sydney Games

NEW DELHI, MAY 5. Indian boxers aiming to make an impact at the Sydney Olympics will be among those travelling to Algeria and Cuba for finetuning ahead of the September games in Australia.

Thirteen of the 20 pugilists currently undergoing a camp at NIS, Patiala, will travel to Algeria for a two-week stint from June 10. Eight boxers from the northern African nation have qualified for Sydney and the exposure is expected to be of great help to the four Indians who have made the grade.

Lightfly Suresh Singh, Bangkok Asian Games gold medallist and bantamweight star Ng Dingko Singh, Commonwealth Games silver medallist Jitender Kumar (middleweight) and lightheavy Gurcharan Singh, who won the bronze at the 1998 Asiad in Thailand will also travel to Cuba for a brief training stint from July 10, according to Indian Amateur Boxing Association officials.

The camp under Cuban expert Blas Iglesias Fernandes and chief coach Gurbux Singh Sandhu also includes prospective pugilists for the inaugural Afro-Asian Games to come off in Delhi in November next year.

A request from Mauritius, which has four qualifiers for the Olympic competition to be held from September 16 to October 1, to train in India was being considered ahead of the trip to Cuba, a world powerhouse in the sport.

The Indian boxers will also undergo a warm-up programme in Sydney ahead of competition as they set out to better their previous best Olympic performance of reaching the pre-quarters.

Suresh Singh, Jitender Kumar and Gurcharan Singh qualified for the Olympics from the second Asian Zone event held at Taejeon city, South Korea in January, while Dingko Singh, grappling with a hand injury like Jitender Kumar, made the grade by reaching the final at the final Continental qualifying event at Bangkok last month.

A junior camp in Delhi, comprising 70 boxers, began here on May 1 and 12 will go for a training-cum-competition trip to Cuba from June 3 to 15.

Sub-junior summer camps for five weeks starting at Bangalore, Guwahati, the high-altitude Shilaroo in Himachal Pradesh and Calcutta will be the basis for picking 11 boxers to Yakutsk, republic of Sakha in Russia, for the children of Asia international sports and games competition to come off from August 4 to 13, they added.

Promising pugilists under 17 years of age from Australia, China, Japan, South and North Koreas, New Zealand, Malaysia, Mongolia, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam will take part in the event.

- PTI

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