‘No camp, no Olympics for Mary’

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 15

Star Indian boxer MC Mary Kom may well miss out on the 2016 Rio Olympic qualifiers if she fails to report to the ongoing national camp at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium here.

Taking a tough stand against the alleged ‘indiscipline’ of the five-time world champion, Boxing India (BI) has excluded Mary Kom’s name from the national camp list. The Manipuri boxer failed to turn up for any of the camps organised by the BI post her 2014 Incheon Asian Games heroics.

BI secretary general Jay Kawli said that unless Mary Kom reports to the camp and takes part in the trials, it would be difficult for the federation to include her in the future camps, including that for the Olympic qualifiers.

BI had also lodged a protest with Manipur’s boxing association. Even then she failed to show up at the camp. Incidentally, Mary Kom was included in the camp as a ‘special case’ after she didn’t take part in the National Boxing Championship held in Raipur last year.

A five-member Indian women’s squad is scheduled to take part in the President Cup in Indonesia from April 18. The tournament has great significance in the wake of the Olympic qualifying events. In case, Mary Kom doesn’t clear the air on her absence, there could well be a situation where she may not even be allowed to participate in the coming tournaments. The Olympic qualifying tournaments would be starting from December onwards.

“Every boxer is the same for BI. Mary Kom, being the senior-most, had been given special treatment in the past and was even allowed to skip the National Championship. But in this case, since there has not been any communication from her side, BI decided to exclude her name from the camp,” Kawli said.

It would also be interesting to mention here that Mary Kom has been getting a tough fight in her weight category from Pinky Jangra, who had defeated her in the Glasgow CWG trials.

Mary Kom’s no-show could spell trouble for her as Pinky has been making rapid strides in her weight and has been a regular at the Delhi camp.

“We can’t be seen as doing injustice to all the youngsters who have been coming up and training hard for the big tournaments,” Kawli added.