In April, the US embassy had declined to grant visas to women boxers L Sarita Devi (60kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) and male pugilist Amit Phangal for submitting wrong documents.
Reportedly, US embassy has declined to grant the visa to most of the Indian pugilists who were required to hit the US shores for a foreign exposure trip, citing improper documents as the reason for rejection.
Indian boxers’ preparations for the upcoming Asian Games and the World championships took a hit as their scheduled visit to the Michael Johnson Academy and High Performance Centre in Texas, U.S.A, has been cancelled because of improper documentation.
A Times of India report on Tuesday claimed the US embassy has declined to grant the visa to most of the Indian pugilists who were required to hit the US shores for a foreign exposure trip. This rejection comes as a huge embarrassment to the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) who did their best to arrange for this exposure trip.
The BFI took the initiative earlier by completing all the paper work so that the boxers could train at the famed academy for three weeks. However, with the US government opting for stringent visa rules under the Donald Trump regime, the majority of Indian boxers couldn’t bypass the visa round.
Consequently, the BFI has started looking for other countries’ training facilities to save its face from the latest setback.