Vinayak Padmadeo
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 5
Only Bhiwani’s Akash Kumar medalled for India at the recent World Boxing Championships in Belgrade. On the face of it, one medal from a team of 13 seems to be underperformance. However, scratch the surface and the real picture emerges.
Akash was part of a group of 11 making their senior India debuts. Only Shiva Thapa and Sanjeet Kumar, who suffered a bicep injury during his quarterfinal loss in the heavyweight division, had previous experience of the Worlds stage.
While Akash returns with a bronze after going down in the semifinals to Kazakhstan’s Makhmud Sabyrkhan, four of his colleagues made it to the quarterfinals, one win away from medalling.
Further, nine from this team made it to the pre-quarterfinals. For a team that had very little time to train — the winners from the Nationals, held on September 15-22 were drafted into the team — the results were far more encouraging than it appears.
The team’s high performance director Santiago Nieva said that the young bunch gave it their all. “I rate it (performance) very highly. It is only one medal but we have won 21 bouts, which is a high ratio for a very inexperienced team at the World Championships. Yes, we wanted more medals but the performance was really impressive,” Nieva told The Tribune. “Many countries are going back without medals. We always want more — had we won two, we would have wanted to get three medals… But overall, I am satisfied.”
Nieva name-checked some of the debutants, including Rohit Mor (57kg), who lost his pre-quarterfinal bout against Kazakhstan’s Serik Temirzhanov 1-4 in a split verdict, and Sumit Kundu (75kg), who lost to Cuba’s Yoenlis Hernandez.
“Obviously Akash stands out as he won a medal after having no experience at the senior level… And Sumit, even though he lost against the Cuban. Then there is Rohit Mor,” said Nieva, talking about those who shone brightest. “I can actually name the entire team. Some definitely could have medalled with a different draw. Deepak showed a very high level, he lost against the Kazakh (Saken Bibossinov) who is the reigning Olympics bronze medallist. So we feel we deserved one more medal.”
‘We were all good’
The 21-year-old Akash, who lost his mother Santosh to a lung infection before the Nationals in September, said he was proud of the way the young team competed despite lacking experience.
“While I feel very proud that I won a medal in my first big international meet, I would say that our team did very well. Ninety per cent of team members were fighting at this stage for the first time and they all did very well,” Akash said.
“Yes, one can say we lacked the experience but we showed up in talent and guts. Some of us beat tough competitors from pedigreed countries. Some of us were very close to winning medals as well,” he added.
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