Tough contest expected at Games boxing trials

The boxing event in the Commonwealth Games has a lone spot up for grabs in each category and a hungry bench is ready to fight it out for that final place during the three-day long trials at NIS,Patiala. The core group itself includes five current and former junior world champions.

Nanao Singh who won the gold medal at the Youth World Amateur Boxing Championships at Moscow in 2008 credits international exposure for early success. Surely,success at the junior level makes us confident. The world titles mean a lot but it also brings a lot of responsibility with it. Apart from exposure against world level boxers,a fine performance at the World Cup,also helped us to look at various training methods, says Singh,who will be competing in the light fly weight category in the trials. Another youngster,who has been performing well at the international level is 2010 world youth champion Vikas Krishan. Krishan also won the bronze in 60Kg category in the Youth Olympics held at Singapore this month and would be a tough challenge to Commonwealth Boxing Championship gold medalist Jai Bhagwan. Another Bhiwani youngster Sunil Kumar became the world cadet champion in 2007 and now competes in light fly weight.

The shifting of weight categories has meant more competition. We are eying a spot and the trials are a fair means to judge us,says Sunil.