Vikas Krishan Yadav’s road to the Rio Olympic Games had begun four years ago when he was denied victory in the pre-quarterfinal match at the London Olympics by the International Boxing Association (AIBA). The apex body had reviewed video footage of his match against USA’s Errol Spence and had decided that the Indian had committed multiple fouls during the bout and awarded the American four additional points – which put the bout 15-13 in the American’s favour.
The Indian boxer had taken the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and the appeal was subsequently rejected. However, it was one big lesson that the pugilist had learned from his previous Games – never leave anything to chance. The boxer used to compete in the 69kg category until the London Olympics but moved on to the 75kg category afterwards.
The 24-year old boxer hails from Bhiwani district of Haryana took up boxing at the age of just 10 when he joined the Bhiwani Boxing Club. He moved on to train at the Army Sports Institute in Pune where he matured as a boxer and went on to win medals at the junior and senior levels, both nationally and internationally. The boxer came to the limelight when he won the gold medal at the Asian Games in the Lightweight category and finished third in the Singapore Youth Olympic Games, both held in 2010.
It marked the beginning of the Boxer’s senior level career at the international level. He further went on to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics by finishing third at the 2011 AIBA World Championships held in Baku, Azerbaijan. He was only 19 years old when he took part at the Olympic Test Event in London in 2011 and finished with a silver medal in the 69kg category. But the eventual Games taught him a lesson he will never forget.
The boxer, however, did not lose hope after the Games and decided to switch to the 75kg category two years ago, and performed well in the tournaments that he participated in. The young pugilist has won the silver medal at the 2015 ASBC Asian Confederation Boxing Championships held in Bangkok, Thailand, and won two bronze medals at the 2014 Asian Games and the 2015 Doha International Tournament.
Bhiwani’s own product has also won the 2016 South Asian Games gold medal in the same category. Since the start of the year, the boxer has looked extremely aggressive in his bouts, giving the opponent no chance to make an impression. He qualified for the Rio Olympic Games by finishing with a bronze medal at the Olympic qualifiers held in Baku in June 2016. The 2010 Asian Games gold medallist could not compete in the semi-final bout after he had suffered a cut which rendered him medically unfit for the bout.
But the boxer is confident of winning a medal at the Rio Games and is treating the outing as his last chance of a medal at the Olympic Games. Yadav recently spoke about his mindset for Rio where he said, “I qualified for London eight months before the Games and probably got a bit too casual. This time I could not qualify from (last year's) world championship, so the pressure was building. It helps in a way, for I'm now in competition mode and I'm not going to relax."
It could be Vikas Krishan Yadav’s shot at redemption after his previous outing in the Olympics, when he features for India at the Rio Olympics on 8th August, 2016.
