PARIS: The Paris North Arena is close to the Charles de Gaulle Airport. The airspace is always peppered with dozens of aircrafts. The sound reaches the arena but it’s feeble. In contrast, the noise inside the hall is insane. Sometimes it goes to over 50 decibels. Enough to make the heart pound faster but when it is a sport like boxing, it’s kind of a heady mix. Even the head starts pounding.
The gruesome sport evokes a kind of atavistic romance no other combat sport does. No wonder the arena is always packed and has been enacting some great performances of the Games. It has also seen its share of controversy too.
For India though, the hope of a medal has extinguished. The Indian camp is distraught. They have realised that they are not medalling at this Olympics. Lovlina Borgohain, the Tokyo Games medallist, was the last Indian boxer to bow out of the quarterfinals when she lost to Li Qian of China on Sunday. It was a split decision but unlike Nishant Dev’s close bout Saturday night, Lovlina looked more vulnerable. The way things stand, Indian boxing seems to be on crutches.
The signs were ominous even before the Olympics. Until the last round of second world qualification, only three women boxers qualified. Two male and one female boxers qualified in the last qualifications in Bangkok. Lovlina’s bout against Li looked close but the way Nishant fizzled out in the end after getting off to a great start shows lack of tactical planning. He looked tired and lacked the endurance to protect himself.
Off the ring, Boxing Federation of India seems to be hit by a big blow. The insipid show of the boxers should give the federation enough reasons to usher in change. The last Olympic cycle had been bad if not worse. Former high performance director Santiago Nieva left under mysterious circumstances. The next HPD Bernard Dunne too was sacked (controversially) after boxers could not make it to the Olympics during the world qualifiers in March this year. Instead of looking at the malaise running deep in the system, the federation was happy sacking HPDs. Not just the federation, even Sports Authority of India’s flagship programme for elite athletes Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) need to introspect.
Women’s HPD Dimitri Dimitrov was made the overall boss of the boxing programme. Let’s see how long he stays. Dimitrov was not a happy man on Sunday. “Things didn't pan out as expected,” he said. “There were close bouts. Like Nishant’s last night bout this too was close. No use complaining. We have to learn from the mistakes.” Dimitrov said that it was disappointing for all the boxers. “When you see such close fights. Every time the scoring system is different for the Olympics. Some have adopted it more.”
There has been a huge hype around the women’s team before the Olympics. Too much noise too. Dimitrov said that was the reason why the teams were brought out of the country for training. Perhaps it will be prudent to put in place policies to keep such things under check.
What has happened in Paris was a poor reflection on the whole system back home in India. There was a lack of good sparring partners.
Senior nationals are dominated by boxers from national camps and the gap has widened between the best and the rest. Transition from junior to senior had been a big problem area. The BFI is expected to focus on this. Without bench strength, the current boxers will never have competition. India must also realise that challenges in world championships are different from the Olympics. Quality of competition too. As the next Olympic cycle begins, BFI must ponder ways to bring the sport back to its glory days.