Mary Kom to skip European tour due to illness

I was not keeping well for the past two weeks because of dengue. I am much better now but won't be travelling, said the six-time world champion

New Delhi: India’s Olympic-bound boxers, except for an indisposed M C Mary Kom and two others, will travel to Italy and France starting next week on a 52-day training-cum-competition trip as they gear up for the Tokyo Games.

Mary Kom is currently recovering from a bout of dengue and has ruled out travelling abroad at least this year due to the Covid-19 threat. The Europe assignment starts on October 15. “I was not keeping well for the past two weeks because of dengue. I am much better now but won’t be travelling,” the six-time world champion and London Olympics bronze-medallist said.

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“I will be based in Delhi and train here only. About travelling abroad for training, we shall see next year when hopefully a COVID-19 vaccine will also come,” added the 38-year-old, set to make her second Olympic appearance.

In all, a 28-member contingent will travel, including 10 men and six women boxers along with the support staff. The exposure has been sanctioned by the government at an estimated cost of Rs 1.31 crore. Six of the nine Olympic-bound (five men and four women in total) are travelling for the assignment. They are – Amit Panghal (52kg), Ashish Kumar (75kg), Satish Kumar (+91kg), Simranjit Kaur (60kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) and Pooja Rani (75kg).

Vikas Krishan (69kg), who is training in the USA and Manish Kaushik (63kg), recuperating from an injury, along with Mary Kom, are the ones missing from the Tokyo-bound list travelling for this assignment. The teams will be training at Assisi, Italy for a period of 52 days from October 15 to December 5.