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‘Boxers, coaches asked to vacate,’ say team officials
Boxers and officials at the Elite National Boxing Championships in Greater Noida face accommodation issues, being asked to vacate hostels mid-tournament.
Greater Noida: Boxers, coaches and team officials who are taking part in the Elite National Boxing Championships here claimed that they were asked to vacate their rooms in different hostels and lodges. There was an outcry from several team officials in the official group asking the organisers to help.
Kerala, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Nagaland and Manipur were some of the teams that reported the issue. Around 600 boxers are competing in the nationals which features both men and women for the first time.
“We are staying in Raksha hostel. I would like to inform you that the hostel management asked us to check out of the hostel now. I would like to request that you handle the issue,” reported a team official at 8pm on Thursday.
Others teams joined the fray saying they too are facing similar problems. When HT reached out to two teams, their officials said they were surprised to find that their rooms were not booked for the entire duration of the championships.
“It is such a poorly organised Nationals. We tried to reach out to organisers (Uttar Pradesh Boxing Association) but there was no response. Our boxers are staying in another hostel and they called us saying they have been told to check out. We have told them to stay put. We will foot the bill,” said the team manager of a state.
“What is happening is very shameful. From the first day the organising has not been good, be it accommodation, food or logistics, and now we are being asked to leave in the middle of the tournament. Why is BFI holding the National Championships,” said the angry official from another state.
On the first day, the start of the tournament was delayed by four hours as rings were not in place and boxers had to wait.
