Historic first for Indian women’s boxing
New Delhi: In a historic first for Indian boxing, Frenchman Stephane Cottalorda, an AIBA three-star coach, has been roped in by the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) to train the country’s women pugilists for a two-year term approximately.
The 41-year-old, who is a member of the European Boxing Confederation’s coaches’ commission, will be joining the boxers in the first week of June.
In addition, Italy’s Raffaele Bergamasco has been roped in for the youth women boxers, while the recently-appointed men’s coach Santiago Nieva has been handed a contract till December 2020.
Bergamasco, also an International Boxing Association (AIBA) three-star coach, too has been appointed till December 2020. Cottalorda, however, has come in till December 2018 for the time being.
“The contracts of all the three coaches were finalised Tuesday after a meeting at the Sports Authority of India. We are looking to bring about stability in the Indian coaching set-up with this,” a top BFI official said.
WSB debut for Manoj, June 8
Indian boxer Manoj Kumar will make his World Series of Boxing (WSB) debut June 8 after being called by his franchise British Lionhearts for the semifinal clash against Astana Arlans Kazakhstan. The welterweight boxer qualified for the August-September World Championships at the Asian Championships earlier this month. “It will be a first time experience at the WSB and I hope I can pull off a good win for my team,” Manoj, a welterweight boxer said. He was among three Indian boxers, who were picked by British Lionhearts mid-season but Vikas Krishan (75kg) and K Shyam Kumar (49kg) did not compete for different reasons.
Agencies
