Vijender aims to end gold drought this year

“I’m keen to justify my top ranking. I was out with an injury after the world championships in Milan but the silver in China this month has set the tempo. As the AIBA rankings are at the end of two-year rolling period,my performances in the World championships,the Asian championship and the Confederation championships helped me stay at the top,” Singh told The Indian Express on Wednesday.

Singh,who lost to China’s Zhang Jin Ting in the Champions of the Champions event last week,sounded confident of ending the gold drought this year. “The tournament in China was like a practice tournament for us and I am looking forward to the international tournaments in coming few months. The injury has healed completely and I am close to my peak. We all are preparing hard for the trials to be held this week for the Commonwealth Boxing Championships. I’ll be aiming for gold in the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games as well,” said Singh.

Apart from Singh,three other Indian boxers,Thockchom Nanao Singh in 48kg (sixth with 1400 points),Akhil Kumar in 57kg (tenth with 900 points) and Dinesh Kumar in 91kg category (seventh with 1413 points) also figured in top-ten in their respective categories. Asian champion Suranjoy Singh was 16th in the 51kg category.

“According to the new system,there is a two-year rolling period for which a boxer accumulates points and the weightage for the oldest event which contribute to ranking is decreased to 75 percent. Singh has maintained the top spot despite less weightage given to his performance in the Beijing Olympics. It makes his achievement all the more commendable,” said Rajkumar Sangwan,who was the last Indian boxer before 2009 to claim a top-ten spot in the AIBA world rankings in 1994.