Lalitpur, April 6

A four-member boxing team is on Saturday leaving for Thailand to compete in the ASBC Asian Confederation Youth Boxing Championships slated for April 20-28 in Bangkok.

Surendra Rai will compete in men’s 56kg weight category, while Kusum Tamang will take part in women’s 57kg event. The event will also serve as the selection tournament for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games to be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina from October 6-18 and also for the 2018 AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships.

Before the tournament boxers will go under training in Thailand. Coach Deepak Rai and manager Om Narayan Shrestha will accompany the players to Bangkok. National Sports Council Member Secretary and Nepal Boxing Association President Ram Awale bade farewell to the team today.

“You are the stars of the country and you should perform with an aim of becoming the best player,” said Member Secretary Bista. “There are lots of international events this year and the NSC is planning to celebrate it as Golden Year. We are also planning various programmes to make it happen. Society is pinning hopes in sports at the moment and we are in a mission of making the nation prosperous through sports.”

Meanwhile, NBA Member Shyam Awale announced a cash reward of Rs 500,000 each to the boxers if they get selected for the Youth Olympics. Similarly, team manager Shrestha said he would honour the boxers with cash rewards of Rs 50,000, Rs 25,000 and Rs 10,000 for silver, bronze and a bout win respectively.