District to get first boxing ring, players elated

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 26

Boxing players in the district have a reason to cheer, as they will soon be playing in a proper boxing ring.

The construction work for the first boxing ring has started at the Sports College here. Despite the fact that three centres were already being run here — at a government school in Maqsuda, Senior Model School and Sports College — no boxing ring was there in the district.

But now, there is a wave of positivity among players as well as coaches. Recently, young players of the sports department won medals in the Youth Punjab State U-19 Championship in boxing. The championship was held at Mastuana Sahib in Sangrur, where as many as 250 students participated from Punjab.

Ashutosh Bhagat, 18, won a gold medal in 60-kg category and Rajat Dogra, 17, also won a gold medal in the 81-kg category.

Rajat has played at national-level twice earlier and had won bronze medal.

Now, both of them are getting ready for the national-level championship.

Notably, the duo had been practicing hard on concrete floors and without any proper facility. But still they managed to win the championship. Boxing is an indoor sport with proper equipment, but the coach made them practice with whatever means he had.

District boxing coach Arihant Kumar said both prepared very hard and used to practice for hours in morning and evening.