India’s boxing high performance director Bernard Dunne has resigned from his post after the disastrous show of the team in the Olympic qualifiers in Italy. Indian boxers failed to win a single Paris Olympics quota from the world qualifiers.
Dunne has sent his resignation to the Boxing Federation of India.
“He has resigned from his position and it is going to be accepted,” said a member of the BFI executive council.
Six men and two women boxers crashed out in opening rounds of the tournament in Busto Arsizio, Italy. Only Nishant Dev in 71kg won three bouts and bowed out in the quarter-finals, a round before the prized Olympic quota.
The performance of the male boxers has been very poor. India have failed to win any Paris Olympics quota in seven weight divisions so far from two events — Asian Games and the world qualification tournament. Among the women, four boxers have booked Paris berths from the Asian Games — Nikhat Zareen, Lovlina Borgohain, Preeti Saipawar and Parveen Hooda. The focus is now on the last qualifying event for the Paris Olympics in Bangkok from May 23.
Dunne was already facing the heat with India’s dismal performance in the Olympic year and the BFI and Sports Authority of India officials had a review meeting on Wednesday.
Nine boxers, five men and four women, had qualified for the Tokyo Olympics with Lovlina Borgohain winning a bronze. It is unlikely that so many boxers will make it to the Paris Olympics.
The fate of foreign coach Dmitry Dmitruk, who was brought by Dunne, hangs in the balance as BFI will quickly need to decide on the future course. Only two months are left for the last Olympic qualification tournament in Thailand.
Dunne, who replaced Santiago Nieva as High Performance director, joined the Indian team in October 2022 and had a controversial stint.
The Irishman’s selection methods courted controversy. Dunne scrapped the selection trials and introduced an evaluation process in the national camp, based on parameters like performance in training, technique, weight management, sparring, etc. It was met with stiff resistance from boxers, coaches and within the BFI.
Some boxers even challenged the selection policy in the court. His decision to reduce the number of national elite campers that was also criticised.
“There is a dearth of sparring partners in national camps. We have a variety of boxers and to prepare your elite boxers they need to spar with boxers of different styles. That is not happening. Most of the boxers have lost the first round and once you are behind it is very difficult to come back in the next two rounds,” said a coach on condition of anonymity.
