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The Indian men’s boxing contingent threw up oodles of excitement till the business end of the recent AIBA World Boxing Championship in Doha, but none of the pugilists qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics, with Shiva Thapa managing a hard-fought bronze medal in the bantamweight category (56 kg).
India fielded six boxers in the marquee event with Shiva becoming the only boxer to reach the semifinals, while Vikas Krishan Yadav entered the quarterfinals with the other four bowing out in the early rounds. Indian boxing head coach Gurbaksh Singh Sandhu is seeing a lot of positives from the Doha big-ticket event. “I was expecting an Olympic berth and a medal and I’m glad we could win a medal through Shiva Thapa. I think the performance of the team was close to our expectations,” he said after returning home from Doha.
Sandhu was full of praise for Shiva, who with a bit of luck could have sealed an Olympic berth: “Shiva boxed well in his semifinal bout against his Kazakh opponent, who was aggressive from the start but in the box-off bout against his Belarus opponent Shiva was at his best but could not overcome his opponent, who mixed caution with aggression nicely.”
Many were surprised with Devendro Singh’s first round exit, since he was considered a medal prospect. “Devendro’s opponent boxed better than him on that day and it was not as if it was a one-sided bout. Devendro will get richer from this experience for sure,” Sandhu quips.
Vastly experienced Manoj Kumar made a surprising first round exit. “ Manoj gave a good fight but it was not his day. An upper cut from his opponent wobbled his jaw during the closing stages and the referee gave him a standing count which cost him dearly,” Sandhu recalls.
However, the Indian boxers have two more tournaments to earn their right to box in the 2016 Rio Olympics. “The Continental Qualifying Championship will be held from March 2016 and the Olympic Qualifying Event in Azerbaijan in June 2016. We are hoping to see as many boxers make the Olympic cut from these two tournaments. The biggest plus of the recent world championship was that none were one-sided bouts, which augurs well for us,” Sandhu remarks.
