ISLAMABAD – Pakistan miseries continued as they lost seven semi-finals bouts out of eight except only M Waseem saved the day for hosts by defeating Indian Madan Lal in the Men's Flyweight (52kg) semi-finals bout of the Second Benazir Bhutto Shaheed International Boxing Championship here at Liaquat Gymnasium on Tuesday.
Pakistani boxers didn't learn from their mistakes and kept on losing matches. Pakistani boxing coach M Tahir was supposed to be with the boxers but he was least bother about the home boxers’ performance and remained busy in live commentary for a private channel.
When this correspondent asked him what were the reasons of putting four teams when they were not up to the mark? He replied that they wanted to give them international exposure for future events. When the boxers are not prepared for such an important international event the team management could have opted for less strong teams having enough experience than to compete against international boxers. Instead of accepting responsibility, the coach simply walked away by saying the foreign boxers are superior than Pakistanis.
Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) is also responsible for the humiliating defeats of national boxers as they don't even bother to at least check once how boxers are making preparations for the events. Pakistani coaches made tall claims instead of doing home-work to appear in the championship and all the concerned persons must be made accountable for Pakistan team’s defeats.
After witnessing all the fights, the difference was very clear between host and international boxers as they all have worked hard to compete in this international event and their stamina was far better than Pakistanis while hosts of an international event always prepared well to contest the event.
But in Pakistan's case the situation was completely different as no one is answerable while the event has exposed flaws in Pakistani boxers and coaching techniques. If the federation really taking boxing seriously then they have to arrange foreign coaches for the boxers and must find talent at grass roots level as most of the current crop of boxers have already past their peaks. Today is the rest day and the finals of different categories will be held on Thursday. The bouts will start at 2:30pm.