Guwahati set to host South Asian Boxing Championship in December

The Boxing Federation of India (BFI) on Tuesday unveiled its 2017-18 calendar which includes the prestigious South Asian Championship to be held in Guwahati from December 6-10.

This is the first time India will host the South Asian Championship, which will see a potential blockbuster clash against arch-rivals Pakistan besides other SAARC countries -- Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, among others.

The South Asian Championship will be followed by the India International Open tournament here in the third week of January. The tournament will witness the participation from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine among other top boxing nations.

The announcements were made after the fifth executive committee meeting of the federation chaired by the President Ajay Singh.

The season will start with the elite men championship in Vishakhapatnam from October 23-30 followed by the junior women's tournament in Rohtak in the first week of November.

The sub junior men and women will be seen proving their mettle from December 12-20 in Pune, while elite women will be seen packing a punch from December 18- 24 in Trivandrum, the youth men will vie for glory in the first week of January in Punjab.

The committee also outlined the BFI's decision to streamline the qualification criteria for the coaches, referee judges (RJ). All the coaches and RJs henceforth will have to make compulsory participation in the state level tournaments as part of the qualification criteria for international tournaments.

The BFI, which completed a year of existence has also decided to initiate a grading system on the lines of International Boxing Association's (AIBA) star rating qualifications for coaches and referee judges.

--IANS

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