The coveted Olympic berths are no longer at stake but Indian boxers will not be short on motivation when they step inside the ring to better a record which states four medals from 20 editions in the men’s World Championships here from Monday.
Vijender Singh (2009), Vikas Krishan (2011), Shiva Thapa (2015) and Gaurav Bidhuri (2017) make the exclusive club which has experienced what it feels like to be on the podium at amateur boxing’s marquee event. All these men ended with bronze medals and that is another aspect in which the Indians would be eyeing an improvement.
“It is going to be tough. The aim is to improve on what we have done in the past. That’s what we work for,” Indian boxing’s high-performance director Santiago Nieva said.
It was meant to be an Olympic qualifier and features revised eight weight categories — 52kg, 57kg, 63kg, 69kg, 74kg, 81kg, 91kg, +91kg — earmarked for Tokyo 2020, instead of the traditional 10 divisions.
However, the event was stripped of Olympic qualifier status after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) lost patience with the long-standing administrative mess in the International Boxing Association (AIBA) and took control of the entire process, which will now start next year. With that status gone, the tournament has lost a bit of sheen.
400 bouts
Nevertheless, it is still likely to feature around 450 boxers from 87 countries in 400 bouts spread across 12 days.
India’s hopes will be majorly pinned on Amit Panghal (52kg), who has been on a roll for more than a year. He is the reigning Asian Championships and Asian Games gold-medallist.
Then there is Kavinder Bisht (57kg), whose bloodied face after a brutal quarterfinal in 2017 is an unforgettable image. Satish Kumar (+91kg) is the only other Indian, apart from these two, who has the experience of competing at the Worlds.
The Indian team: Amit Panghal (52kg), Kavinder Bisht (57kg), Manish Kaushik (63kg), Duryodhan Singh Negi (69kg), Ashish Kumar (75kg), Brijesh Yadav (81kg), Sanjeet (91kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg).