Ajay Singh re-elected Boxing Federation of India President

Spicejet chairman Ajay Singh defeated Ashish Shelar in a high-profile contest to get re-elected as president of Boxing Federation India for a second term at the general elections held in Gurugram on Wednesday.

Singh defeated Shelar, former Maharashtra Cricket Association president, 37-27. Hemanta Kumar Kalita was elected secretary general and Digvijay Singh treasurer. The elections were held in the presence of AIBA observer Yury Zaystsev and IOA observer Rakesh Gupta.

“I am grateful that the general body of BFI has reposed trust in me and in my team. We are grateful that work of the last four years has been recognised and we will continue to serve for the growth of boxing,” said Singh.

He said his immediate goal is to provide all facilities for the Tokyo Olympic-bound boxers so that India can achieve glory in boxing at the Olympics.

“We need to try and win an Olympic medal because that gives a lot of wind to the efforts and encourages many more to take up boxing. “It is a very important year for Indian boxing. The Tokyo Games are in July and we have a record number of nine boxers who have qualified for the Olympic Games and we are hopeful that more boxers will qualify from the world boxing qualification in June.”

“We will ensure that the qualified boxers attend as many international championships as possible. They recently had an exposure tour to the Olympic Centre in Assisi, Italy and participated in competition in France and Italy. The Asian Championships will happen in New Delhi in April and May and world qualifying in France in June. We will leave no stone unturned to train our boxers.”

As for his second tenure, Singh said the focus will be development at the grassroots, sports science, women’s boxing and involving young administrators in the sport.

“Boxing is an aspirational sport and we want every youngster to aspire for glory for themselves through the sport. It is inspiring to see people from small town, villages who are hungry for success do well in boxing. India has done exceedingly well in the last four years and is now among the top 10 nations in the boxing world. Our objective is to ensure we are among the top one or two boxing nations,” he said.

Singh said women’s boxing will have special focus during the next tenure, considering that 2024 Olympics is likely to see more events in women.

“In 2024 its quite likely that the events for men and women will be of equal number. Women’s boxing is traditionally strong in India and we have to pay more attention to women’s boxing. Mary Kom is a huge inspiration and continues to fight.

“We will explore the possibility of having many more women administrators, women coaches, referees and judges and women doctors. Unfortunately, when the women's team goes for international championships, we have only men doctors, which is inappropriate. We will try and rectify that. So there is so much work to be done.”

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