Pooja Rani, Sonia Lather pull out of upcoming Strandja Memorial Boxing Tournament

New Delhi: Two-time Asian champion Pooja Rani (81kg), who recently lost her father, and former world medallist Sonia Lather (57kg) have pulled out of the upcoming Strandja Memorial Boxing Tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria as they did not feel competition ready during the training camp in New Delhi.

The two conveyed their decision to pull out a couple of days ago after not feeling up to it in training, a team source told PTI.

“Both were there in the team but Pooja told us a day before that since her training has not been regular, she does not feel, she would be able to deliver. Same with Sonia, she was in rehab after an injury and conveyed that it wasn’t going as well as she would have wanted,” the source said.

In a conversation with PTI after her father’s sudden death earlier this month, Pooja had said that she wanted to compete having made the team and joined the national camp within days of the tragedy.

“She wanted to but then training zyada nahi ho paayi thi and she herself said that it would not be good to just show up there and not perform,” the source said.

“Since these are last-minute pullouts, we won’t be able to field replacements and therefore the women’s team would be of 10 instead of 12,” he added.

The women’s squad is made up of national champions.

The men’s team is also primarily represented by national champions which means that the five who competed in Tokyo Olympics would be waiting for some more time before getting back in action.

Amit Panghal (51kg), Vikas Krishan (69kg), Manish Kaushik (63.5kg), Ashish Chaudhary (75kg), and Satish Kumar (+91kg) have been training at the national camp in Patiala but are yet to be competition ready in terms of fitness.

The two squads will leave for Sofia on Thursday night.

Men: Govind (48kg), Ankit (51kg), Rajpinder Singh (54kg), Rohit Mor (57kg), Varinder Singh (60kg), Dalvir Singh (63.5kg), Akash (67kg), Rohit Tokas (71kg), Sumit (75kg), Sachin Kumar (81kg), Lakshya Chahar (86kg), Gaurav Chauhan (91kg), Narender (+91kg)

Women: Nitu (48kg), Anamika (50kg), Nikhat Zareen (52kg), Shiksha (54kg). Meena Rani (60kg), Parveen (63kg), Anjali Tushir (66kg), Arundhati Chaudhary (71kg), Saweety (75kg), Nandini (+81kg).

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