Visa issues force cancellation of Indian boxers' US training trip

Courtesy: PTI

Guwahati: Indian boxers' first planned training trip to the USA has been cancelled owing to visa-related complications.

Seven Indian male boxers were to travel to the USA for a 10-day training at the acclaimed Michael Johnson Performance Centre in Texas early next month. However, the trip has been put off for now after visas did not come through in time.

"The Sports Authority of India had cleared everything but we realised that we won't get the visas in time. So the trip had to be cancelled. Tremendous disappointment but hopefully we can plan it later," India's High-Performance Director Santiago Nieva told PTI.

The squad picked for the trip comprised those who participated at this year's World Championships in Hamburg, Germany.

So, Hamburg bronze-medallist Gaurav Bidhuri (56kg), three-time Asian medallist Shiva Thapa (60kg), former CWG gold-medallist Manoj Kumar (69kg), Amit Panghal (49kg), Kavinder Bisht (52kg), Sumit Sangwan (91kg) and Vikas Krishan (75kg) had been selected.

The Michael Johnson Performance center is much sought after among top athletes and specialises in performance training, physical therapy, biomechanical assessments and nutrition consultation.