Women pugilists derailed

When Indian Railways recruited women boxers, it was seen as a shot in the arm for the sport.

When Indian Railways recruited women boxers, it was seen as a shot in the arm for the sport. But lack of coordination means the country’s top three boxers, Aswathy Mol, Aswathy Prabha and Swapna VK will miss the training-cum-exposure trip to Canada, Hungary and Turkey. The reason—they will be attending a training programme to be ticket checkers at Bhusawal.

This comes at a time when women’s boxing has hit a low after the high of 2006 where India won three gold medals at the World Championships. Of the three world champions, MC Marykom is on maternity leave while L Jenny is under a dope cloud.

But the Railways are defending their decision. Central Railway CPRO Shriniwas Mudgerikar said: “Undergoing this training programme is also part of their job. We have a department in Railways that decides the schedule of sportspersons and sees how it will best help us. We have our own training camps and we also have to think of inter-Railways tournaments.”

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The national coaches aren’t happy that the trio are missing a preparatory camp at Hissar. Chief India coach Anoop Kumar is delighted that his wards have employment, but he cannot help noticing their drop in form after they joined Railways. “Though the girls managed to win gold medals at the Federation Cup, their performances have dipped,” he said. His assistant Chandra Lal said: “The coaches at Railways don’t specialise in coaching women. Besides, they don’t even have sparring partners. And when they have a chance to be at the national camp, they miss it.”

But with the Railways opening their doors to women boxers, they have their backers too. The secretary-general of the national boxing body Col Murlidharan Raja supports the Railways’ stand. “The federation is thankful as they (Railway) have started giving jobs to women boxers. They are just completing their official formalities. The Asian Championship is still months away so it isn’t a big thing that they are missing this trip,” he said.

While aboard INS Vikrant, the Prime Minister had a packed schedule of engagements, officials said.

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