Journalism of Courage
Devendro Singh,current Asian Championship silver medalist and Olympic and World Championship quarterfinalist,will not be traveling to the Boxing World Championships in Almaty,Kazakhstan in November.
The 20-year-olds bout on the opening day of the light flyweight (49kg) trials against Pankaj Saini was stopped less than a minute into the first round when he was head butted by his opponent. The cut required four stitches and is expected to take at least three weeks to heal ruling him out of the trials.
With Devendro,the current world no. 2 in his category,being seen as one of Indias best bet for a medal in the tournament a strong push was made by the national coaches for his inclusion in the squad.
One possibility for his selection was for two players to be named in the 49kg category with the category specific selection trial to be held at a later date. However,with the team expected to travel for an exposure trip to Kazakhstan ahead of the Championships early next month,and Devendros cut not expected to heal before that,a postponed trial was not deemed possible.
It is learnt that former World Youth champion Nanao Singh has made the squad for what will be his first WC. While the competition was undoubtedly made easier for Nanao in the absence of Devendro,he didnt have everything going his way. Having beaten Commonwealth champion Amandeep in the first bout of the trials on Tuesday,he was made to face him again on the second day of trials alongside Saini as the latter contender hadnt done much to raise confidence in his own bout against Devendro.
Nanaos bouts against the two werent separated by a break either. He fought two rounds against Saini followed immediately by two rounds against a fresh Amandeep. Despite the disadvantage,he clearly won the first bout against Saini.
In spite of his aggressive style he didnt run of steam and did more than enough to get the decision in his favour in the other two rounds against Amandeep as well.
On the comeback trail after a devastating arm fracture early in his career which continues to plague him sporadically,Nanao has been in strong touch recently. He won gold at the National Championships in Hyderabad last year,his second national title,also winning the best boxer award for his efforts. Subsequently he won a silver at the Khabarovsk International Competition in Moscow earlier this year. However he had lost to Devendro at the trials for the Asian Championships in June this year.
