20 May,2021 06:26 AM IST | Mumbai | Ashwin Ferro
India boxer Amit Panghal and India pugilist Vikas Krishan
Chief coach of India's men's boxing contingent, CA Kuttappa, heaved a sigh of relief on Tuesday when the Boxing Federation of India gave the final nod to the team's travel to Dubai for the Asian Boxing Championships, beginning on Monday, May 24.
"There was some uncertainty about our participation earlier due of the Covid-19 situation worldwide but I'm glad we are going now. An athlete can train for any number of hours but without competition, it's tough to gauge where you stand. This competition has come at the perfect time. It will be our last event before the Tokyo Olympics and will show where we stand in terms of our preparations for the Games," Kuttappa told mid-day from the national camp at the National Institute of Sport, Patiala, on Wednesday.
India will be sending a 10-member men's squad to Dubai of which three boxers - Amit Panghal (52kg), Vikas Krishan (69kg) and Ashish Kumar (75kg) - have qualified for Tokyo.
Kuttappa heaped praise on two of his boxers in particular - Asian Games gold medallist Panghal and World Boxing Championships bronze-winner Krishan, only the second Indian boxer after Vijender Singh to qualify for three Olympics in a row. Panghal, who won silver at the 2019 World Championships in Russia, is also the defending champion at the Asian Championships, having won gold at the 2019 edition in Bangkok.
"Amit and Vikas are in brilliant form. Both have been working very hard in training with a single-minded ambition of winning an Olympic medal in Tokyo. Amit had to settle for bronze in Russia [at the Governor's Cup in April] after losing to Uzbekistan's reigning Olympic and world champion Shakhobidin Zoirov in the semis. But for me, he had won that fight and I even told him later that had this bout been at the Tokyo Olympics, he would've been declared the winner. Vikas is also looking good to excel in Dubai. He recently became a father for the fourth time last week, so it helps that he's in a very positive frame of mind too," Kuttappa explained.
Unfortunately, two of India's Olympic-bound boxers - Manish Kaushik (63kg) - and Satish Kumar (91kg) will not be part of this tournament as they are recovering from Covid-19 . "This pandemic has been a challenging time for us," said Kuttappa. "Initially, we had around 44 boxers at the camp. But the virus struck and we had to prune it down to 25 and then further cut it down to 12. We have ensured our boxers are always in the bio-secure bubble at NIS, and even if they have to go home for some family emergency, on returning, they have to be in strict quarantine.
However, even when they are in quarantine, we ensure that their fitness work does not suffer. They train in isolation while we monitor their progress online," Kuttappa concluded.
