Asian Championship high will boost confidence of Indian boxers for World Championship: Sandhu - Indian Express
National coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu is a happy man these days. Recently, the Indian boxing team shared the second spot with Uzbekistan by winning one gold, two silver and one bronze medal in the Asian Boxing Championship held at Amman, Jordan, and Sandhu is upbeat the way the Indian boxers performed in the Asian meet. At Patiala, where the national camp got underway on Friday, Singh believes that the performance in the Asian Championships will motivate the confidence of the Indian pugilists ahead of the World Championships to be held later this year. In a chat with Sportline, Sandhu talked about the experience in Jordan, emergence of youngsters like Shiva Thapa and Mandeep Jangra and his future plans.
Excerpts :
India finished second along with Uzbekistan in the Asian Boxing Championship in Jordan. How do you rate this performance?
It's a superb performance fom the boxers. This is a good sign after a tough period for Indian boxing. Indian boxing has been in the news for various reasons this year but this performance has come at the right moment for us. We finished joint second among 28 countries and I would rate this performance as one of the best. The young boxers performed without any fear and showed that they have the skill to excel at the international stage. We had many positives from this performance and if some of our boxers had not lost close bouts, we would have finished with more medals.
Shiva Thapa became the youngest Indian boxer to win the title in Asian Boxing Championship. What are your views on Thapa?
Shiva has shown that he has learnt a lot from the experience in London Olympics. He was young at that time and in the last one year, he has become more aggressive as a boxer. Earlier, he did not use to throw counter punches but now he plans his counter punches. What was noticeable in Jordan was that Thapa dominated all the bouts. He has shown the maturity in this championship. Other boxers like Mandeep and Devendro also played well and lost narrowly in the final. The youngsters are learning quickly and it will help Indian boxing in the future.
National coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu is a happy man these days. Recently, the Indian boxing team shared the second spot with Uzbekistan by winning one gold, two silver and one bronze medal in the Asian Boxing Championship held at Amman, Jordan, and Sandhu is upbeat the way the Indian boxers performed in the Asian meet. At Patiala, where the national camp got underway on Friday, Singh believes that the performance in the Asian Championships will motivate the confidence of the Indian pugilists ahead of the World Championships to be held later this year. In a chat with Sportline, Sandhu talked about the experience in Jordan, emergence of youngsters like Shiva Thapa and Mandeep Jangra and his future plans.
Excerpts :
India finished second along with Uzbekistan in the Asian Boxing Championship in Jordan. How do you rate this performance?
It's a superb performance fom the boxers. This is a good sign after a tough period for Indian boxing. Indian boxing has been in the news for various reasons this year but this performance has come at the right moment for us. We finished joint second among 28 countries and I would rate this performance as one of the best. The young boxers performed without any fear and showed that they have the skill to excel at the international stage. We had many positives from this performance and if some of our boxers had not lost close bouts, we would have finished with more medals.
Shiva Thapa became the youngest Indian boxer to win the title in Asian Boxing Championship. What are your views on Thapa?
Shiva has shown that he has learnt a lot from the experience in London Olympics. He was young at that time and in the last one year, he has become more aggressive as a boxer. Earlier, he did not use to throw counter punches but now he plans his counter punches. What was noticeable in Jordan was that Thapa dominated all the bouts. He has shown the maturity in this championship. Other boxers like Mandeep and Devendro also played well and lost narrowly in the final. The youngsters are learning quickly and it will help Indian boxing in the future.
