Without any govt prop, village boasts of boxing champs

Sarbjit Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 25

If you have right temperament, positive attitude and determination, you can do it. This is the message from inhabitants of Chakkar village of Ludhiana, which has achieved glory in sports in a short span of time.

It shot to fame when a native of the village, Mandeep Kaur Sandhu, won the Junior World Boxing Championship at Taipei recently.

There has been no help of any sort to the village from the state or the Union Government. “When our girls did well at the national level, the government set up only one boxing ring in the village,” said Sukhmander Singh, a resident and an activist who organises activities of the village sports club.

“We do not expect anything from the government. We only want that the achievements of our players should be acknowledged by rewarding them, the way the Haryana government does”, he said.

He said the state government today promised to give cash reward of Rs 1 lakh to Mandeep Kaur while Haryana gave at least Rs 15 lakh to its gold medal winners at the international level.

Prof Balwant Singh, another villager, said: “We spend about Rs 15 lakh in a year on sports activities in the village. Besides paying salary to three coaches engaged by the Sher-e-Punjab Sports Academy to train sportspersons and maintaining infrastructure, trainees belonging to poor families are provided track suits, shoes and diet free of cost,” he added.

Their travelling and other expenses are also borne by the academy, which is funded by a Canada-based NRI family and others,” he said.

Sportspersons belonging to this village have already won six medals in international meets, 35 in national events and near 200 medals at the state level. Interestingly, girls have been doing much better as compared to boys.

Of the six medals won at the international level, five of them were won by girls. While Mandeep Kaur won two gold medals this year, other medals were won by Simranjit Kaur, Harpreet Kaur and Shivinder Kaur. “Our girls have set an example for other villages,” said Sukhmander Singh.

Speaking to The Tribune, Mandeep, who returned from Taipei this morning, said: “My dream is to do what Mary Kom has done for the country. I am working very hard to reach that level.” Thanking the residents of her village, Mandeep said: “Our village is special. People there give a lot of encouragement to their daughters to be self-dependent and achieve big in life.”