NEW DELHI: Their flight may have landed in New Delhi at 3.30 am early in the morning but India’s medal-winning boxing contingent from the World Championships were surprised to see the number of people who had gathered to welcome India’s latest heroes.
Amit Panghal, who won historic silver in the big-ticket event, had even asked his close friends to not come to the airport! “My entire village wanted to come. I told them I will come home in a couple of days. It was overwhelming to see such a large crowd. It feels good to have made the country proud,” he said.
It was India’s best-ever showing at the competition, winning two medals — one silver and one bronze (won by Manish Kaushik) — as they finished sixth. And Panghal said the entire team was confident of winning more than one medal this time around. “We practised hard and sometimes even more than the stipulated hours. That showed how eager we were to impress and I’m glad those hard yards bore fruit. My aim was to upgrade the colour of the medal.”
The 23-year-old, who shifted to 52kg after initially starting out in 48kg, lost to Uzbekistan’s reigning Olympic champ Shakhobidin Zoirov in the final. The defeat has helped the Asian Games gold medallist figure out where he stands at the top-most level and what he needs to work on.
“Many people feel my short height puts me at a disadvantage. I don’t think so. My stance helps. But I have to work on my strength and power a little more as in this weight category, most boxers deploy a lot more power in their punches. Maintaining fitness and improving my stamina is also on my agenda.”
Panghal, Naib Subedar in the Indian Army, is fully focussed on making the cut for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. And for that he has zeroed in on the events he wants to participate in prior to the Asia/Oceania zone Olympic qualifiers in February in China. “I will be participating in the World Military Games next month.
Then comes the Indian Boxing League, which will give great impetus to the sport to grow in our country. In both competitions, I will get to face a variety of boxers with different styles and strategies. All this will stand me in good stead ahead of the qualifiers.” Panghal knows how difficult it will be in China as Asian boxers dominate at the Olympics and Worlds. “For us who are in the lower weight category, the level of competition at Asian qualifiers is almost the same as World Championships. So it will be tough. But we need to qualify from there itself as the World qualifiers will be even tougher with US and European boxers taking part.”
The southpaw also added that he was keeping track of India’s progress at the wrestling World Championships. “I like wrestling and India’s performance there was heartening. The only sad part was the fact that our system of qualification got changed. Otherwise, four of us would already have qualified for the Olympics,” he signed off.
Seven rested for nationals
Of the eight pugilists who represented India in the World Championships, only one will participate in the Nationals. “Only Ashish Kumar (75kg) will play at the Nationals. No other boxer from the World Championship team will take part as they require adequate rest after returning from such a high-level competition,” said India high-performance director Santiago Nieva.