Cash Award For 2019 Asian Boxing Championship Medallist Released On June 9, 2022: Sports Ministry

The Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports has released the cash award for boxers Manisha, Nikhat Zareen and Sonia Chahal for winning medals at the 2019 Asian Boxing Championship. The awards were released dated June 9th, 2022, according to a statement from the ministry.

Boxer Sonia Chahal, who spoke to NDTV on June 9th and 10th, informed that she was not aware of the developments and that she was yet to receive the sanctioned money.

In an earlier statement to NDTV, the boxer had said, “Nikhat Zareen, Manisha and I had won bronze medals at the 2019 Asian Championships but till now we have not received the prize money. Some of the players who were associated with that tournament have received the prize money. When we asked one official about it on the phone, he said that ‘the budget is over’. Now you tell me, where do we go for our own prize money?”

Sonia Chahal is officiating at the Commonwealth Games trials at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in New Delhi. A silver medallist at the 2018 World Championships held in New Delhi, she is currently out of the ring due to health issues. Sonia’s coach Jagdish Singh also has the same complaint.

The Ministry though has rebutted Jagdish’s claims in a statement saying that he was employed by the Sports Authority of India at the time he had applied for the cash reward and after examining the application, the ministry decided that he was “not eligible for the cash award.”

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“Shri. Jagdish Singh, the then Chief Boxing Coach, SAI had also applied for cash award to him for the said event. The Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports after examination of his proposal found that he being active SAI coach at the time of the event is not eligible for the cash award and accordingly he was regretted. It is worth mentioning that Shri Jagdish Singh was a SAI employee, who joined the services in SAI on 13.11.1986 and retired on 28.02.2021. Being a SAI employee, he was not allowed to do private coaching apart from National Coaching Camps. He is already into litigation with SAI and the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports on the issue despite being not eligible for the cash award,” the Ministry said in its statement.

Women’s boxing trials for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Birmingham are being held at the IG Stadium from June 9 to 11 and all eyes are on these trials because of the big names involved. Indian women’s boxing legend MC Mary Kom, Tokyo Olympics medallist Lovlina Borgohain and world champion Nikhat Zareen are all part of these trials.