Lessons from YMCA boxing
By Ramu Sharma
THE YMCA International Boxing Championships held in Delhi recently once again was heavily tilted in favour of teams from India though the juniors from Ukraine had many lessons in store for the home pugilists both in approach and attitude. In fact, the participation of boxers from Ukraine could be said to be the best thing that could have happened to both the YMCA Championships and Indian boxing if only there is a willingness to learn and emulate.

Swimming star cries out for competition
By P.S. Phadnis

Nisha Millet has always taken to water like the proverbial duck. And having spotted her special talents at an early age, father Aubrey and mother Sheila let her plunge headlong.

Nisha didn’t disappoint. At the recent National Games in Imphal, Manipur, she came up with so many swimming gold medals that the dainty fingers of both her hands were not enough to keep count. In fact, schoolchildren in Karnataka have started talking about it in percentages. Nisha won 50 per cent of Karnataka’s haul of 28 gold medals.

Even as Nisha’s neck is hanging heavy with all those gold medals, Aubrey and Sheila Millet have heavier problems to ponder. What and where next? And who to seek help from?

The Millets’ world revolves round the swimming careers of Nisha (17), and her 15-year-old sister Reshma. Aubrey Millet even gave up his job as general manager of a major Chennai-based firm to settle in Bangalore so as to make sure the girls have access to the best swimming facilities India can offer.

“We had to shift to Bangalore because this is the only city in India that has facilities for swimming close to international standards,” Aubrey Millet said.

“They have facilities to monitor skin/fat ratio, heart ratio and lactate acid tolerance only here. A couple of clubs here have these facilities. Besides, the private swimming pools here are also of international standards,” he explained.

The Karnataka government had promised Rs. 50,000 for every record broken and Rs. 30,000 for every gold won by its sportspersons. Nisha broke nine national records and won nine golds, but the government decided that it needed to pay her only Rs. 150,000 on the ground that each medal and record could not be taken into consideration separately. However, even the scaled-down payment is yet to be made.

Nisha’s career, her father rued, could abruptly end unless they found sponsors for her training overseas. Training abroad would cost at least Rs. 300,000 a year. Even if she trains in India, the costs will be the same, but the advantage is that she would be able to participate in aquatics events in the country, he said.

“If she is in India, we will have to pay for her trips abroad for tournaments,” Aubrey Millet said. “Unless she finds funds to train abroad, she will have to put an end to the career. She has achieved in India whatever she could and has reached a plateau. There are no girls of her standard to train with. Even training with boys is a problem because she is ahead of them as well. So she is not pushed to improve herself.”

So, amid all the gruelling training sessions, doesn’t academic life suffer? That is sorted out. While Aubrey Millet accompanies the girls when they go for international tournaments, his wife Sheila acts as their manager at home to strike the right balance between their education and sports.

“Her (Nisha’s) school and college have been very supportive,” Sheila Millet said. “She is able to attend her college only for a month in a year because she is busy with her training.”

“But she manages to get a first class (above 60 per cent marks) and occasionally obliges with 70 and 80 (per cent marks). We don’t put pressure on her to study,” the proud father added.

As for the champion swimmer, she has her heart set on training in Australia and there is sound logic guiding her choice. “I would prefer training in Australia because we have a lot of relatives there. Another advantage is they have swimming and studies on the same campus,” she said. “I am keen on attending the Australian Institute of Sports in Canberra.”

“My next preference is the United States,” Nisha said. “I have also got an offer from the Arizona Swimming Institute, Phoenix, where I had trained for three months earlier.”

And what was her dream? A medal in the 2004 Olympics, she promptly said. Her role model is Franziska Van Almsick, a gold medallist at the last Olympiad.

Nisha plans to participate in the World Short Course swimming in Hong Kong in April and the South Asian Federation Games in Nepal by the year-end. She also proposes to take part in the Sydney Olympics next year.

Asked about her academic ambitions, she said: “I wanted to do a course in marine biology, but my teachers pointed out that I had little time for practical classes, so science subjects were out. So I settled for psychology. I want to do a course in sports psychology abroad and take it up as a career.”

And what does she to unwind from all that training and competition? She listens to rock music, she said, with her favourite band being Aerosmith. “I listen to them in the gym and before competitions. It relaxes me,” she said.

The champion swimmer is also an avid reader and movie buff. “I love reading thrillers by John Grisham and Michael Chrichton,” Nisha said. “I love to watch Will Smith movies.”
— India Abroad News Service

Lessons from YMCA boxing
By Ramu Sharma

THE YMCA International Boxing Championships held in Delhi recently once again was heavily tilted in favour of teams from India though the juniors from Ukraine had many lessons in store for the home pugilists both in approach and attitude. In fact, the participation of boxers from Ukraine could be said to be the best thing that could have happened to both the YMCA Championships and Indian boxing if only there is a willingness to learn and emulate.

The most important thing that struck some of the Indian officials was the attitude of the visiting team’s coach-cum-manager. He straight away refused the bye earned from the draw and insisted that his boxers would fight from round one. “I want them to have the full benefit of this exposure” was his refrain. It was a very positive attitude and not generally found in some of the earlier entrants from the former Soviet republics, most of whom failed to make an appearance this year because of clash of dates with their own championships. The Ukraine boys, making their first appearance in the YMCA ring, were very keen to make a good impression. So much so that even their Ambassador took time off from his heavy schedule to be present on the scene almost every day, even briefing the mediapersons on the hard work put in by the boxers from his country.

The other important lesson the Ukraine boxers had for the discerning was the way their followed up their punches. Unlike most of the Indians who followed the age-old “one-two” formula but lose their way looking for the “killer” punch, the Ukraine boxers appeared to be thinking at least a couple of punches ahead of their strike. And they were certainly fitter. They thus naturally dominated the junior section, claiming the team title with 25 points. India “Pink” finished second.

It was while watching the Ukraine boxers and particularly the talented Oleg Yefymovych, adjudged the “Best Boxer” of the Championship, that one of the senior officials in the Ring Officials Commission lamented that India appears to have lost out in the art of training the boxers for international meets and wished that someone like Munnuswamy Venu was drafted for the job without much delay.

He was particularly anxious over the lack of proper coaching-training for light-heavyweight Gurcharan Singh, easily the most talented boxer in the country but one who appears to be losing his way. “Something is drastically wrong with our coaching system. We still stick to the old fashion formula of ‘one-two’ without any further elaboration”.

There is a lot in what he said and he was not the only one too. This was the general impression of quite a number of officials and former boxers. They were all of the view that coaching has to revamp to suit modern boxing. The national coach, Gurbax Singh Sandhu, has his hands full and cannot be expected to be present all the time. He needs assistance and could also do with a stint abroad to gain first hand knowledge of what countries like Cuba, Korea and even the fast improving Soviet republics were doing to update the sport.

Sandhu was a busy man during the YMCA meet and contributed not a little to the outstanding show put on by Suresh Singh, a gold medallist in the junior section of the 1st edition of the YMCA and who now had the crowd on its feet with a tremendous win over A.K. Biki Sapkok of Malaysia, the Commonwealth Game gold medal winner in the light flyweight class. The chief national coach himself took the role of a second to encourage and guide the young boxer who responded to the advice in a brilliant fashion. Sapkok himself admitted that he had lost to a superior boxer. “The Indian boxer was very fast, and he seemed to be well prepared. I trained only for two weeks before coming here but would be ready for the King’s Cup.”

Suresh Singh apart there were other promising performances by boxers from India which fielded more than one team to make up for the lack of numbers. Unfortunately this year’s championships was somewhat a low key affair with quite a few prominent boxers staying away because of niggling injuries. One had hoped that the Asian Games gold medallist, Dingko Singh, would be fit on time. But he too was a notable absentee. And Gurcharan had it all too easy, winning his final bout 19-0.

The absence of teams from the Soviet republics (Ukraine excepted) had a dampening effect on the overall championships. Boxers from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal and Mauritius filled the breach but with the exception of Sri Lanka’s Anuruddha Rathnayaka and Rakib Ahmed of Mauritius others did not amount to much. Obviously some of the boxers from outside had not been in proper training.

Indian teams duly won the senior and sub-junior sections, their victory being assured by lack of competition and sheer numbers of the host teams. But something surely was missing this year. The number of competitors had dwindled to 90 odd from the 250 plus of four years ago and the ambience normally associated with the missed the message. The timing of the championship could be faulted but there were obviously other drawbacks and even the regular officials seem to feel the change.

In this respect the announcement by the Organising Secretary during the championships that the YMCA was rethinking of going back to the good old days was welcome news. The hark back to the old days related to time when the YMCA held the Invitation Championships for Schools which later elaborated to teams from all over India, teams such as the popular MEG, BEG, Roorkee and BEG, Kirkee, and the regimental teams like the Kumaon and the Gorkhas and others. Those were really the good, old days.

Revival of the old theme would be a good thing. The YMCA Boxing Championships was a promotional venture and it has contributed considerably in spreading the message. The YMCA ring has produced some of the finest boxers the country has seen. It can do so again provided a beginning is made.

The new king of tennis
By Amitabh

Carlos Moya of Spain has become the 15th man to top the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranking list since its start in 1973. He is the first Spaniard to be on top of the tennis world. When his parents named him Carlos after Spain’s King Juan Carlos, they had never imagined that their son would one day become the “king” of tennis, and that too at a young age of 22. Well, Moya has done it.

Born in a distant town of Mallocra, Carlos Moya had always dreamed of becoming the best tennis player in the world but for a child from Spain where tennis is not very popular among its population of just 39 million, it was too far-fetched an ambition to have. But once he had set this goal for himself, he put his life and soul into the effort to make it come true. This is what he revealed only after becoming number one.

It is for the first time that someone ranked as low as fourth in the ATP rankings has captured the top spot in one go. It happened when the previous number one Pete Sampras started looking vulnerable and lost in early rounds of various tournaments. The gap between him and the others started narrowing. At one time, all three players following him, i.e., number 2 Yevgeny Kafelnikov; number 3 Alex Corretja and number 4 Carlos Moya, had a chance to topple him. But Lady Luck smiled on the last one in the race and Carlos Moya achieved what is the ultimate wish of every tennis player. That is exactly what former world number one John Newcomb from Australia said after presenting a memento to Moya: “What you have done is dreamed by everyone”.

Now that he has climbed to the top of the hill, the road ahead will be a even more tortuous one. Moya, who is the reigning French Open champion, will have to play at his best to retain his position as the best player in the world because the point difference between him and others is so very narrow. He just cannot afford to relax. The toughest challenge of course will be from Pete Sampras who has been number one for 262 weeks. Since he was just eight weeks short of the all-time record held by Ivan Lendl (270 weeks), the urge to stage a comeback would be all the more fierce in him.

The real test for Moya will be the French Open Championship at Paris where he will be the defending champion. Sampras on his part would be raring not only to get back the number one spot but also to add to his kitty the only Grand Slam title which he has all along failed to call his own. He can be depended on to fire on all engines to score a “two-in-one” victory.

But all that is crystal-grazing. Today’s reality is that Carlos is the newly anointed top dog. Long live the “king”. Amen!

Sport Mail
Kudos to Moya for becoming No. 1

KUDOS to 22-year-old Carlos Moya for becoming the first Spaniard ever to become world number one in men’s tennis. Moya became the 15th player to reach this position as he ended Pete Sampras’ 29-week streak at the top spot. Moya got this distinction as the other contenders in the race i.e. Kafelnikov, Patrick Rafter and Corretja lost their opening round matches. But the lucky Moya picket the right spot to beat 1997 French Open champion Kuerten for the first time. Now he has become a hero to be chased for autographs.

HARSUKH MANJEET
Gurusar Sadhar

Lara’s kock

It was a real pleasure to see Brian Lara bat splendidly against Australia in the second Test at Kingston, Jamaica. He batted solidly and authoritatively against an attack comprising the world’s greatest spin bowler Shane Warne and best pacer Glenn McGrath. His knock of 213 was a real match-winning one. He was rightly adjudged “man of the match”. Lara almost single handedly drove his side to victory in this Test after the Caribbeans had lost six Tests on the trot recently.

ISAAC DAVID
Jalandhar

Akram’s feat

Hats off to Wasim Akram for becoming the first bowler to claim a hat-trick in successive Tests. The 33-year-old left arm pacer, who is also the skipper of Pakistan, won laurels with the last two balls of his very first over and the first ball of his second over. His feat is the 25th hat-trick in the 123-year-old history of Test cricket. But he is only the third player in the world to claim two hat-tricks. Hugh Trumble of Australia and TJ Mathews of England were the earlier two respected bowlers to record double hat-tricks. Mathews’ feat is unique. He took hat-tricks in each innings. But it is ironic that no Indian bowler has so far accomplished this feat.

H.S. DIMPLE
Jagraon

Aussie victory

Kudos to Steve Waugh and his team for winning the first Test against West-Indies by 312 runs. The West Indians were bowled out for 51, their lowest total, in the second innings. The credit goes to McGrath who took 5 for 28 and Gillespie who took four wickets. It seems as if Brian Lara and his batsmen are not playing to their potential. Over the past three years, the West Indies cricket has witnessed a steady decline. First they lost to Pakistan, then to South Africa and now to Australia. The West Indies cricket authorities must take urgent steps as the World Cup is fast approaching.

MANMEET PANU
Amritsar

Hockey series

In the recently concluded Indo-Pakistan hockey Test series, India lost the series due to poor goalkeeping and poor penalty corner conversion. There is no harm in giving a chance to young players but it is important to retain the senior players up to the Sydney Olympics in national interest. Sohail Abbas emerged as a penalty corner expert or Pakistan but we are yet to produce a penalty corner expert like Prithipal Singh and Surjit Singh. Good goalkeeping and penalty corner conversion is a must at the international level.

Dr B.S. GHOTRA
Talwara