Havildar Gaurav Solanki won the Gold in men’s boxing, 52 kg category, at the Commonwealth Games in Australia.
Javelin thrower Naib Subedar Neeraj Chopra and boxer Havildar Gaurav Solanki, from the Pune-based Army Sports Institute (ASI), made the institute proud by clinching Gold medals for India in the Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast in Australia on Saturday. Other than the two gold medals on Saturday, ASI sportsmen have bagged three silver and two bronze medals at the tournament. Five of the seven medals were won by boxers. Another boxer, Vikas Krishnan, from the Boys Sports Company of the ASI, also won a gold for India in the tournament. Krishnan works as a police officer in Haryana.
ASI conducts training in archery, athletics, boxing, diving, fencing, weightlifting and wrestling for serving Army sportsmen and boys under the Missions Olympics Programme. The achievements of ASI trained sportsmen include almost 750 international medals and over 3,800 national medals, with nine Olympic qualifications and four Youth Olympic Medals
Nb Sub Chopra became the first Indian javelin thrower to bag a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, achieving the season’s best effort of 86.47m in the final at Gold Coast in Australia on Saturday. He is the second javelin thrower to claim a CWG medal, the first being Kashinath Naik, who is also from the ASI. Naik had won a bronze in the 2010 Delhi Games.
“It is a very important medal for me… I wanted to touch my personal best but I missed it by a centimetre… I tried so hard that I tumbled over in my last two attempts. But I am very happy and I have lot of competitions this year to achieve the personal best,” Nb Sub Chopra told news agency PTI after his victory.
“These medals are a source of great pride for all of us here at the ASI. We hope that such performances become the stepping stone for even greater achievements,” said an ASI officer.
Havildar Gaurav Solanki won the gold in the 52 kilogram category, beating Northern Ireland’s Brendan Irvine. Three more boxers, Subedar Satish Kumar (91 kg), Nb Sub Manish Kaushik (60) and Nb Sub Amit Panchal (46-49 kg), all from the ASI, bagged silver in their respective categories. One more boxer from ASI, Nb Sub Mohammed Hussamoddin, failed to make it to the final but won a bronze medal for the country, taking the ASI’s boxing medal count to five.
Weightlifter Deepak Lather, who received his training at the ASI, won a bronze in the 69 kilogram category. Subedar Jai Singh Patil and Naib Subedar Chhote Lal Yadav, also from ASI, were the coaches with the boxing squad. Naib Subedar Chhote Lal Yadav is also the coach of Mary Kom, who won Gold medal in the Light Fly Weight (48 Kg).
Nb Sub Chopra (20), who is from the Rajputana Rifles Regimental Centre, is attached with ASI to train for athletics and has also trained under German coach Uwe Horn. “He had started his training in ASI, after enrolling in the sports quota as an elite athlete. The levels he has achieved till now are extremely inspirational…,” said an ASI official.
Another ASI athlete, Nb Sub Jinson Johnson, created a new national record in the 1500-metre event by breaking the 23-year-old record of Bahadur Prasad. Johnson finished fifth in the final at Gold Coast with a timing of 3:37.86. The previous national record was held by Bahadur Prasad, with a time of 3:38.00 at the 1995 South Asian Games.
(With PTI inputs)