11 April 2004	Sunday	20 Safar 1425

KARACHI, April 10: Pakistan is all set to host the third round of Olympic qualifiers in Karachi from May 5 to 12, in which some 35 top boxing nations of Asia are participating.

Half of the countries expected to take part in the event have confirmed their participation. A training camp for the 3rd Olympic qualifying round of Pakistani boxers will be held from April 15 at Navy Sports Complex.

Pakistan at present has three qualifications for the Athens Olympics from first two qualifying rounds held earlier this year.

Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) is confident of getting two more qualifications from the third qualifiers.

Besides some junior and cadet boxers, all the pugilists who had won gold medals in SAF Games as well as Asghar Ali Shah, Mehrullah and Nauman Karim who have already qualified for the Olympics will also attend the camp.

The camp will serve as a launching pad for the boys for third and last Olympic qualifying rounds as well as for pre-Olympics tournaments and World Junior boxing championships to be held in end-May and mid-June, respectively.

According to PBF official the qualified boxers would be sent to pre-Olympics events after the conclusion of qualifying rounds.

He said junior pugilists would remain in the camp for some time and would later head to Jejo, Korea to take part in the World Junior boxing championships.

PBF official was hopeful that Pakistan would be able to get two more qualifications from the third qualifiers. Faisal Karim, younger brother of Nauman Karim, and Ahmed Ali are expected to qualify.

"More than five qualifications will not be useful for Pakistan," as they did not have enough resources to train more boxers, he said.

"Keeping in view the tremendous performances of pugilists in SAF Games, we can hope for more qualifications from the third qualifiers," he said.

He said that they had received entries from 17 countries and expected almost all the top boxing nations would participate in the event.-PPI