Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju on Sunday said the Government would allow elite athletes to resume their training at the earliest in order to keep them ready for future competitions.
“We are planning out a way to start functioning as soon as possible. I thought we should first allow practice for athletes who have qualified for the Olympics and those participating in the qualifiers or important championships. We can't open all the coaching centres, so we will allow only elite athletes [to train]. Junior camps have to wait for some time as safety will be the priority,” said Rijiju, at a video conference attended by 140 boxers and coaches.
Top pugilists, including Mary Kom, Amit Panghal, Pooja Rani, Simranjit Kaur, Lovlina Borgohain, Vikas Krishan, Satish Kumar and Manish Kaushik, took part.
Rijiju expressed confidence that boxing — nine Indians have won Olympic quotas already — would help the country shine at the Tokyo Games next year.
