Cuba has performed exceptionally on the world stage in amateur boxing, and sits at the second position in all time medal winners list in the Olympics with 32 Gold medals for a total of 63 medals.
India has never been the powerhouse in boxing at the world stage but in the last decade, India has started producing some world-class pugilists. A large portion of that credit can be claimed by Bhiwani - a small town in Haryana that has started treading on the same path as Cuba.
Set up by the double Asian Games gold medallist Hawa Singh, the Bhiwani Boxing Club or 'BBC' as it is called has transformed from being the brainchild of a passionate boxer to being the hotbed of boxing talent in the country. The credit for the success of BBC, a small town club is generally given to the Dronacharya award winning coach Jagdish Singh. His coaching methods, believed to be hard and uncompromising, are believed to be the reasons behind the success of the pugilists from this club.
The club had been quite successful since the beginning of the decade, with three of the four boxers who qualified from India for the Athens Olympics being from this club. However, the real recognition for the club came with the success of the boxers at the Beijing Olympics when two boxers, Akhil and Jitender reached the Quarter-finals and Vijender Kumar went one better to win the bronze medal.
Akhil, a former commonwealth games gold medallist, one of the senior boxers at the club is considered by many to be the inspiration for many of the trainees at 'BBC'. The success of Vijender at the Olympics coupled with him being ranked No. 1 in the world currently has provided the town with a second rush of youngsters wanting to take up boxing at the club.
This is quite evident from the fact that, along with the supposed old guard (although most of them are still quite young) of Akhil, Vijender, Jitender and Dinesh, a number of teenagers have started making their mark at the national and international level already. Vikas Krishan Yadav, a 18-year old and the reigning world youth champion, recently won the gold in the recently concluded Asian Games at Guangzhou. This just proves that the success of the club is built on a strong foundation and it was not just a lucky break to get some good boxers at the same time. The town has now become obsessed with boxing with all the parents now wanting their children to have successful boxing careers. It is now estimated that around 10% of all teenagers in the town are enrolled in boxing clubs. Since, the intake of the club is very limited and the number of aspirants greater, a number of private clubs have also cropped up in the area which has led to the creation of quite a competitive boxing scenario in the town.
Although now boxing has started receiving a lot greater attention, there is still a long way to go. The facilities at the centre, being funded by the Sports Authority of India, are far from world class and one would cringe if one sees the condition of the room where potential world champions stay in. Although, the expenditure on coaches has improved many-fold, a small fraction of that on the facilities might go a long way. Many organisations like the Olympic Gold Quest have come forward to sponsor the top athletes, but more investment is needed at the ground level if we really want to make a difference.
Boxing is now considered by many to be one of the best bets for a medal at the Olympics along with Shooting. The pugilists have already set sight on the winning the Olympic medals with Akhil Kumar, Dinesh Kumar, Vikas Krishan and Vijender Kumar being the main hopes but it would be foolish to ignore the emergence of a unknown name from the Bhiwani stable and surprise us in London 2012.
If India wins a bagful of medals at London 2012, it should be thankful to people like Hawa Singh, Jagdish Singh and everyone at BBC who has contributed in producing world-class boxers.
Very nice blog.beautiful post..thanks for sharing here..
ReplyDeleteIndia Sports