Mary Kom to skip Italy camp, will train in Pune

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 16

The face of women’s boxing in India, MC Mary Kom, has decided not to travel with the team to Assisi, Italy, for a preparatory camp before the Olympic Games.

Instead, Mary will train with her personal coach Chhote Lal Yadav at the Army Sports Institute in Pune. The entire boxing team, including the other eight Olympics-qualified boxers, will most probably leave for Italy latest by Saturday. The travelling party will consist of 17 boxers, including the sparring partners of the qualified boxers and support staff.

“Mary doesn’t want to waste any time on travel so she has decided to stay back in Pune to train,” said a source in know of the development. “She is happy here as she has a lot of young boxers, both boys and girls, to train with. She would lose at least two days in travel only and currently her workload is such that she can ill afford to lose training time.”

It is understood that as per the initial plans, the team will be based in Italy until July 6 but their stay there could be extended to ensure that the entire team flies directly to Tokyo for the Games.

As reported by The Tribune last week, the Sports Ministry as well as SAI officials have been encouraging national federations to come up with plans to ensure that the country’s medal hopefuls reach Japan directly from their training bases outside India.