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Journalism of Courage
TAEJEON CITY SOUTH KOREA, JANUARY 18: Indian boxers will face a stern test to secure berths for the Sydney Games when they begin competition in the second Olympic qualifying tournament for Asia to be held here from January 19-26.
An eight-member squad, including Asian Games bantam weight gold medallist Ng Dingko Singh who has recently recovered from a right wrist injury, Commonwealth Games middleweight silver winner Jitender Kumar and Bangkok Asiad lightheavy bronze medallist Gurcharan Singh, will strive to corner some of the 22 berths available from the event.
Though the third and final qualifier will be held at Bangkok from April 1 to 7, Indian pugilists will be keen not to leave things out till the last minute.
The Indian task might be rendered slightly easier since the first string Asian boxers have mostly made it at Tashkent, but much will depend on how much hard work they have put in during training and how motivated they are.
Out of a total of 68 berths allotted to Asia 8212; the Olympic competition will have a field of 312 boxers 8212; Tashkent accounted for 22 and the Bangkok meet will provide 24 qualifiers.
The other five Indians to be seen in action are: S Suresh Singh lightfly, H Srinivasa Rao fly, Ramanand feather, Narendra Rana light and K Sanjit Singh lightwelter.
Chief coach Gurbux Singh Sandhu and Cuban trainer B Fernandez will hope the team does vastly better than in the Asian Championship, where India finished without a single medal.
While Rana went out in the quarterfinal by a one-point margin on individual judges8217; scoring after he was tied 3-all at the end of the close bout, Jitender Kumar was adjudged loser despite dominating the bout and a protest was quashed.
Only four of those who went to Tashkent are in the fray here and much attention will be on Dingko Singh, who could not make it due to his wrist injury suffered a few months ago.
But featherweight Ramanand, the Services boxer hailing from Uttar Pradesh, may pull a surprise if the National champion can raise his level a shade.
But strong countries like erstwhile Soviet Republics, Uzbekistan, Kazakhsthan, Turkmenistan besides Thailand, the Philippines, Japan and Korea will be tough to overcome.
Dingko Singh has not done much after winning his gold medal in the Asian Games. A gold in the SAF Games in Kathmandu in September last year cannot be the yardstick to gauge his fitness level. But Ramanand and Gurcharan won gold medals in a non-ranking tournament in Cuba in July 1999 other than taking silver and gold respectively in Kathmandu. PTI
