Bernard Dunne resigns following Indian team’s terrible performance in Olympic Boxing qualifiers

Bernard Dunne has stepped down as Indian Boxing’s High Performance Director. The Dubliner resigned this week and will no longer oversee the Asain boxing programme. The move comes following a dismal performance at the first Olympic Boxing qualification in Italy last weekend.

None of the nine Indians in contention secured an Olympic berth, with eight of them losing in the first round. Presumably motivated by the poor performance, Dunne presented his resignation to the Boxing Federation of India, which was accepted. Former Irish youth coach Dmitry Dmitruk, who was coaching the men’s team, will also quit.

India’s poor performance in the recent Olympic qualifiers has led to a coaching problem. High Performance Director Bernard Dunne has resigned, and foreign coach Dmitry Dmitruk is expected to be fired soon. Dunne, a former Irish professional boxer who was named HPD in October 2022, announced his resignation from Italy, where he was part of the Indian squad for the inaugural World Olympic Boxing Qualifiers. After two qualification games the Asian Games and the inaugural World Olympic Boxing Qualifier, no Indian male pugilist has secured an Olympic place.

While no male boxer has yet qualified for Paris, the training of the four women boxers who have received tickets, including medal contenders Nikhat Zareen and Lovlina Borgohain, is a worry.

“He has resigned from his position and it is going to be accepted,” said a member of the BFI executive council. The spotlight now shifts to Bangkok, where the last qualifying event for the Paris Olympics begins on May 23.

Last year in the IBA Men’s World Boxing Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Dunne led his nation to an unprecedented number of medals. With three gold won by India for the first time ever, Deepak Bhoria (51 kg), Hussamuddin (57 kg), and Nishant Dev (71 kg) all made it to the podium.

After taking over as High Performance director from Santiago Nieva, Dunne joined the Indian squad in October of 2022. From 2017 until 2022, Dunne oversaw the Irish high-performance boxing squad, which achieved elite performance and took home gold medals at the European, World, and Olympic levels. But the Irishman’s time in India has not been without controversy.

Boxers are assessed on a range of parameters in the national camp, and Dunne did away with the selection trials and instituted a new selection methodology. In court, a few fighters even contested the selection process.

Indian women’s boxing team coach Bhaskar Bhatt resigned from his role in June. The men’s squad is currently coached by CA Kutappa. Dmitry Dmitruk was named the foreign coach for both teams in the meanwhile.

Durga Prasad Gandhamalla and Jai Singh Patil have also been recruited to the coaching staff by the Boxing Federation of India.

The second Olympic World Qualifiers, which begin on May 23, will give Indian fighters another opportunity to earn quotas, but the unrest in the Indian boxing scene does not bode well.