BANGKOK: Boxing Federation of India (BFI) secretary general Jay Kowli has been elected to the executive committee of the Asian Boxing Confederation at the ASBC Congress held here Wednesday.
Kowli polled 23 votes out of a total 36 Asian countries attending the event, PTI reports. The ASBC EC comprises 16 members in all and India was being represented by BFI president Ajay Singh for the past two years.
Kowli is a veteran administrator, who has also been a former boxer and ring official. He has worked as a secretary general of the national federation in two different terms.
The ASBC Congress was held just a couple of days before the Asian Championships, which will have simultaneous competition for men and women for the first time since its inception.
The technical meeting and the official draw of the championship took place Thursday.
At Wednesday’s Congress, the ASBC endorsed the International Boxing Association (AIBA) as “the one and only governing body of Olympic Boxing” despite the recent administrative turmoil in the body due to which the International Olympic Committee (IOC) threatened to kick boxing out of the 2020 Olympics.
The ASBC called upon the IOC to “recognise the significant advancements AIBA has made in governance, anti-doping, finances and the refereeing and judging programme”.
It also urged the IOC to restart a dialogue with AIBA and “serve the athletes by approving the qualification system for the Tokyo Olympic Games”.
