The department of sports under the Union ministry of youth affairs and sports on Monday asked the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to arrange for the accreditation of Lovlina Borgohain’s coach.
This comes after the ace boxer had penned a long note on social media alleging mental harassment as her coaches were repeatedly being replaced. Borgohain mentioned in her post that this had adversely affected her preparations ahead of the Commonwealth Games 2022.
Taking to Twitter, the department of sports wrote, “We have urged the Indian Olympic Association to immediately arrange for the accreditation of the coach of Lovlina Borgohain.”
It may be noted that Borgohain, who had won the bronze medal in boxing in the Tokyo Olympics, alleged mental harassment due the dirty “politics” ahead of Commonwealth Games 2022 scheduled to begin from July 28 in Birmingham.
She said that her training process has been completely halted just eight days ahead of the tournament due to the politics behind the scenes.
In a statement, the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) mentioned that only 33 per cent of the playing contingent is allowed as support staff which in BFI's case for the 12 boxers (eight men and four women) stands to be four support staff, (including coaches) who were to travel with the team to Birmingham.
The statement further read, "The requirements of boxing with respect to coaches and support staff is a little different as there are multiple bouts, which could be one after another. The IOA understood BFI’s point of view and therefore, extended help with maximum possible additional support staff. With IOA’s help the number of support staff went up from four to eight for the entire contingent of 12 boxers."
"BFI ensured that Sandhya Gurung was at the training camp in Ireland. BFI is closely working with IOA so that Sandhya Gurung could be a part of the team in Birmingham. In the meanwhile, delegate transport and accommodation at ETO’s hotel has been already provided to her," it added.
