Australia pulls out of Commonwealth Championships in India

Indian pugilists will be up against some of the best boxers of the world in the Commonwealth Championships that commences from March 10-18 here even as Australia continued to have reservations in sending its athletes to India.

All the major Commonwealth countries have confirmed their participation for the event that will see 120 boxers competing in 10 weight categories but Australia preferred to stay away from the Championships.

Indian Boxing Federation (IBF) secretary general Col Muralidaran Raja said around 15 countries including, England, Pakistan, South Africa have already confirmed their particpation and added that a Canada is also expected to join the list.

He claimed that it was because Australia was itself hosting an international event during the same time, so they chose to keep themselves away from the 11-day event.

''We have received confirmation from all the major Commonwealth countries and Canada is expected to confirm any time soon. Australia has pulled out of the event. We don't know the exact reason but we are told their boxers will be participating in an event at home,'' Raja told mediapersons today.

At a time when various test events for the Commonwealth Games are being postponed, a successful conduct of the Boxing Championships will come as a huge boost for India.

''Yes we have all the support from the AIBA (International Boxing Association) and the Sports Ministry here. boxing is no longer a sport that it used to be in India but has now grown in stature and that was the reason we wanted the our boxers to compete against the best in the world,'' Raja said.

The AIBA has already approved the Championships and has nominated a liost of foreign officials who will oversee the conduct of the event.

Akhil Kumar, who brought home a gold from the last Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, was upbeat about his chances in the event and said the competition will serve as a good practice ground for the Indian pugilists' chances in the October Games.

''All our boxers have been doing really well for quite some time now and we are hopeful that we will be able to make this event count before the Commonwealth Games in October,'' Akhil said.

''Competing at home does give us some advantage and we will have a similar environment during the Commonwealth Games, so the boxing Championships will certainly be a good help for us,'' he added.

On expectations from himself, Akhil said he had been preparaing hard for of late and was very confident that he will not settle for anything less than a gold in front of his home crowd.