NEW DELHI: India’s insipid show at the recently held World
Boxing
Olympic qualifiers has resulted in its first casualty — high-performance director (HPD)
Bernard Dunne
.
The Irishman, one of the highest paid foreign coaches in the Indian sports ecosystem, has lost his job with the
Boxing Federation of India
(BFI) — who consulted the
Sports Authority of India
(SAI) — after country’s dismal performance at the qualifiers in Italy’s Busto Arsizio where all nine participating boxers failed to secure a quota place for
Paris 2024
.
Worst of all, some of them even suffered RSC (referee stops the contest) after getting knocked out in the first round. This was the first time that Indian boxers returned empty-handed from an Olympic qualifying event, with only Nishant Dev making an impression after enduring a heartbreaking loss in the quarterfinals of the 71kg category.
Dunne, who was paid $15,000 per month in salary, had travelled with the team to Busto Arsizio for the qualifiers. It’s been learnt that another Irishman, Dmitry Dmitruk, who was hired as the chief foreign coach of the country’s elite men and women’s teams, is likely to follow suit.
According to sources, his days with Indian boxing are numbered and both BFI and SAI are unhappy with his training methods. While Dunne had joined the Indian boxing set-up in October 2022, Dmitruk was brought to coach the two teams in February last year.
It’s been learnt that an online meeting of sports ministry, SAI and BFI officials took place on Wednesday afternoon, where it was decided to accept Dunne’s resignation. A formal confirmation is expected soon when BFI’s core committee meeting will take place at its Gurugram headquarters on March 15, where the fate of Dmitruk and other coaches will be decided.
It’s been learnt that Dunne sent his resignation a week back from Italy after watching the pathetic show of Indian boxers at the qualifiers. But what annoyed the BFI bosses most was that Dunne didn’t follow the usual office decorum and sent his resignation to BFI’s executive director Col Arun Malik
instead of marking the copies to federation president Ajay Singh and secretary general Hemanta Kumar Kalita.
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