Indian boxing: The Asian games 2010

The power pack performance of Indian boxers at Asian games was better than any of their prior efforts. Indian boxers clinched two gold, three silver and two bronze medals at the Asiad.

This was also the first time that Indian boxers were able to win greater than a single gold medal in Asian games. This is the best ever performance by Indians beating earlier in 1984 Asian Games held in Seoul when they collected four silver and five bronze medals.

The coach Sandhu’s statement that asiad will be tough did make some people believe that boxers might not be able to re-live the glory of commonwealth games but that was not to be. It seems it was more like getting things started with low expectations. He later did point out that the boxers needed more rest and considering the commonwealth and Asian games were near each other, fitness would have become an issue. Luckily things went according to the plan and India gave its best performance in boxing till date in terms of medals.

The gold medals by Vijender and Vikas were first after dinko singh’s victory in 1998. Though it will be more special for Vikas all of 18 years old winning a gold at international level. Vijender for one can say farewell to the bronze medal jinx and now focus on gold for Olympics.  His win was truly remarkable since it came with a broken thumb and final scorecard read 7-0 ,showing the character of the boxer.

This time round there were 5 Indian boxers in final and everyone was wondering if all five could win. Though the expectations were bit exaggerated but it was bound to be citing the phenomenal rise of Indian boxing. Dinesh Kumar, Santosh Kumar and Manpreet Singh were also expected to win gold but their bouts went one sided and they all lost, though their loss none the less helped India get 3 silver medals and in no way undermined their achievements and efforts. The other boxers who won bronze were Suranjoy Singh, Paramjeet Samota, Mary Kom and Kavita Goyat.

Mary Kom was expected to win gold as she has been world boxing champion for more than 5 years but she had tough luck this asiad games, Hopefully she will turn the tables around in Olympics where woman boxing is featuring for the 1^st time and get India gold.

Though the thing which was bothering is condition in which our stars still live. I read the article in Hindustan Times giving a view of the conditions in which the boxers have to train. The pics were of bhiwani boxing academy which has produced 4 Asian medal winners of 2010.

The pics did really showed the pathetic condition of training with broken coolers and no A/C facilities, dimly lit room and the worst one was the sanitation pic. I doubt this would be the treatment meted out our cricketers. The corporate world needs come up and help them since one doubts government might put an effort. If the government does help then it would be better as it is their job to make sure those who win medals for the country need to be given proper respect and good training facilities.

Haryana government has been making an effort in improving the lives of sportspersons and paying them handsomely, now it needs to look into the infrastructural short comings which is causing problem to the budding boxers.

Results

Gold

1. Vijender Singh              (75 kg Category)
2. Vikas Krishan                (60 kg Category)

Silver

1. Dinesh Kumar                (81 kg Category)
2. Manpreet Singh            (91 Kg Category)
3. Santosh Kumar             (64 Kg Category)

Bronze

1. MC Mary Kom            ( Woman 51 kg Category)
2. Kavita Goyat                (Woman 75 kg Category)
3. Suranjoy Singh            (52 kg Category)
4. Paramjeet Samota      (+91 kg Category super heavy weight)

Coming of age of Indian boxing

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Established in February 1949, the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) has been instrumental in uplifting the standard of boxing in India and in encouraging the young sporting enthusiasts to take up the game as their profession. Affiliated to Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA), the world governing body for the sport, IABF has put forth strenuous efforts in bringing the boxing talents of India to the limelight. Championships at the national level have  been conducted by the Federation, to make the sports enthusiasts in India recognize the professional boxers of the country. “

This what reads on the website on Indian boxing federation, but many know that for 4 decades Indian boxing was in a sorry state , very few know about the names such as Hawa Singh (who dominated domestic boxing circuits) and Mohd Ali Qamar ( creating history by winning gold in Manchester commonwealth games) . It was first time that any boxer had done so and then Dinko Singh’s Asian gold.

Though in this decade it seems, Indian boxing are creating history and many would say rewriting it and in this crusades they are led by none other than the charming Vijender Singh who won bronze in Beijing Olympics.

This time when commonwealth boxing was occurring in Delhi’s Talkatora stadium many expected a good performance from Indian boxers but what they saw was remarkable performance. The hosts had picked a 10-member team for the competition and won 6 gold medals most by any country and declared Team winners too.

Performances like these could do wonder for the sport such as boxing which is picking up among masses and will certainly bring corporate sponsorship too , Sahara Parivar has already announced that they would be official partners of Boxing now apart from being officials partners of Indian cricket team and Indian Hockey.

Before the Tournament began Vijender Singh was saying “I want to convert the color of my medal to gold from bronze “, he was finally able to fulfill his wishes and of those associated with him .Jai dedicated his triumph to good friend and his room-partner Vijender for supporting him in his hour of crisis.

“Vijender supported me through an injury crisis in 2008 and motivated me to continue. So, this win is for him,” Jai said.

“I tried to settle down in the first round and though I was trailing, I was confident of coming back and the massive crowd support also helped me. He began to look tired after the second round and that’s when I attacked him the most,” said Samota, for whom it was a career-best performance in Super Heavy weight category.

While India clinched the team title, defending champion England finished runners-up. India had previously won the team title in 2005 with four gold and three silver medals in Glasgow. In 2007, Indians had fetched a gold, two silver and three bronze medals to finish runners-up in Liverpool.

Though those who missed out this time were Akhil Kumar (56kg), Balwinder Beniwal (Vijender Singh’s cousin,64kg), Dilbagh Singh (69kg) and Manpreet Singh (91kg) who crashed out by the quarter-final stages but their efforts need not be less recognized especially someone like Akhil Kumar who has been unlucky on several occasions.

Commonwealth Games are round the corner and with this power pack performance by Indian boxers in Commonwealth Boxing the expectations of Indian crowd are bound to be high and we will have pack houses for the showdown. Finally Indians can cheerfully say that they are good at sports other than just cricket.

Following are the results of the commonwealth boxing results. :

GOLD MEDAL WINNERS

Super heavyweight (91+ kg): Parmjeet Samota (India)
Light flyweight (49 kg): Amandeep Singh (India)
Flyweight (52 kg): Suranjoy Singh (India)
Lightweight (60 kg): Jai Bhagwan (India)
Middleweight (75 kg): Vijender Singh (India)
Light heavyweight (81 kg): Dinesh Kumar (India)
Bantamweight (56 kg): Ian Weaver (England)
Light welterweight (64 kg): Scott Cardle (England)
Welterweight (69 kg): Fred Evans (Wales)
Heavyweight (91 kg): Simon Vallily (England).

Indian Boxing

The boxing as sport in India has gained prominence in recent times, it is due to the rise of some prominent boxers with the likes of Vijender Singh and Akhil Kumar

Before the rise of these stars there were Dingko Singh, Hawa Singh , Mohd Ali Qamar and V. Devarajan among some outstanding boxers India ever produced. Hawa Singh dominated the national championships, by winning title for eleven years on a row, from 1961-1972.

Dingko Singh shot into fame at a very early age, when he won the sub-junior national boxing title in 1989, when he was eleven years old. He made the country proud by winning a gold medal at the Bangkok Asian Games in 1998.

Qamar created history in Indian boxing, by becoming the first Indian boxer to win a Commonwealth gold medal at the Manchester Games. While Dingko Singh‘s Asian Games gold medal reminded one of the heroics of the legendary Indian boxer Hawa Singh, Ali Qamar‘s triumph has inspired the youngsters to don the boxing gloves for the country.   V. Devarajan created history in his own right as he became the first Indian to win a World Cup medal on foreign soil in 1994,

Though it was Vijender Singh’s Bronze in Beijing 2008 Olympics that has brought boxing in the prominent light, where as earlier it use to live in the shadows of of cricket and other sports , since there was no glamor associated in the sport and corporate world used to shy away from investing in the game as they feared no good returns from their investments.

It seems as though Vijender Singh`s rise and growing demand from all across the country for an alternate sport to cricket has caught even corporate India’s eyes, Vijender got a deal worth 5 crore per annum which is though nothing compared to Sachin Tendulker`s 100 crore deal but with time hopefully he can match him in earning. Those who went along with him and did well in Olympics also have a chance to make fortune out of it which include the likes of Akhil Kumar and A L Lakra.

It seems that onus of making boxing a household name lies in the hands on handsome 23 years Vijender Singh who has just recently become the world no .1 , one should not forget MC Mary-Kom who has been women’s world champion in boxing for last 4 consecutive years and this time that women boxing is also being included in Olympics sport so it is likely that she will bring home the first Olympic gold. It is just that these boxer apart from encouragement would also require the service of corporate world which could be a vital force in achieving the targets in making a power in boxing arena and then we Indians no longer need to boast just about being good only at cricket and young children could identify these boxers as their role models as they do with the crickets.