End of the boxing boom?

Gagan K. Teja

Tribune News Service

Patiala, May 26

Exactly 10 years ago, almost out of the blue, two boxing superstars emerged from India — Akhil Kumar and Vijender Singh. Akhil won a gold and Vijender a silver at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Vijender, of course, went on to become the first Indian to win a medal at the Olympic Games two years later.

In Beijing 2008, Vijender won a bronze medal at the Olympics — it was a very significant achievement because the medal came in a physically intense sport requiring top physical condition, power and killer instinct. Suddenly, Indian boxing was making news and Vijender, Akhil, Jitender Kumar, Lalit Lakhra and Dinesh Kumar became household names. Boxing became a rage and Bhiwani in Haryana — from where Akhil, Vijender and Jitender came — became famous for its boxers.

Indian boxers won more medals in the World Championships, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and other prestigious tournaments, and boxing training centres in the country started attracting more trainees.

While five male boxers from India had competed at the 2008 Olympics, a total of eight boxers (seven men and one woman) qualified for the 2012 Olympics. Those were days of hope, but things didn’t turn out too well after that. In 2012, India expected to gather more than one medal at the London Olympics, but the country won only one medal there, won by Mary Kom.

Falling star

The male boxers returned empty-handed from London. Things had already started worsening by then. Politics in the administration of the sport aggravated the situation as clashes of egos amongst the officials derailed the functioning of the Indian Boxing Federation. So much so, the international boxing association (AIBA) suspended the Indian national federation. A new body, Boxing India, was established, but that too had to be terminated after the state units objected to it.

Since then, even though the ad-doc committee of AIBA under the chairmanship of Kishen Narsi has been taking care of all boxing affairs, including conducting trials for all international championships, the performance of the boxers has gone done drastically.

Boom over?

As against eight boxers who represented India in the last Olympic Games, only one boxer, Shiva Thapa, has qualified for this year’s Rio Olympics. The boxing boom seems to be over. The women boxers have lost their last chance to make the Olympics cut as Mary Kom, Sarita Devi and Pooja Rani failed to qualify through the AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships. The men will have one last chance to make it through the World Olympic Qualifying Tournament at Baku in Azerbaijan from June 16.

Even if more boxers qualify for the Olympics, the fact is that there is little realistic hope of an Indian boxer winning a medal at Rio. The situation is so desperate that the coaches themselves are not very hopeful about many more boxers even making the Olympics cut. They feel that at this stage even if four boxers can manage to qualify for the Olympics, it will be a big achievement.

Fading hope

“The suspension of the national federation has caused irreparable loss to the sport,” said a boxing coach, who didn’t wish to be named. “We have not been holding the National Championships for almost four years now because a few departments do not allow their players to compete in these championships due to the suspension of the boxing body.”

“Moreover, the players have not been part of combined training for the past four years, and this has led to a steep fall in their performance,” he added. The last time such a training programme was held was back in 2012 in Ireland. “But after that, no such training session was held for four years and now, with just a few months left for the Olympics, the team has been sent to Ireland,” he said.

The coach said that training in Cuba regularly had benefitted the Indian boxers, but now they only get to compete against each other, and due to this there is no growth and new learning.

AIBA has warned that they would not allow Indian boxers to participate in the Olympics if India doesn’t hold the elections for the national body. The uncertainty caused by this is another factor that constantly bothers the coaches and boxers. “While the players and coaches and sulking, the officials are busy in their own games and satisfying their egos. They don’t care about the country, following which the sport is almost as good as dead now. Look at wrestling, where it has reached in the past eight years... And see the fate of boxing,” added another senior coach.

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Akhil says

Indian boxing has suffered a major setback, thanks to some bad elements who have entered the sport and are using it for their personal gains. The situation is so messed up that we need a dictator for the clean-up. I agree that the national federation has been suspended for long and it has adversely affected the sport, yet we can't use it as an excuse for poor performance. The Sports Ministry and Sports Authority of India have been spending approximately Rs 12 crore every year on the training of the boxers. So, we need to find where the real problem lies and fix it.