Indian Boxing Thread

[jaydeep]

At World Boxing Championships Chicago 2007,

[QF] Anthresh Lalit (Lakra (IND) l Yang Li (CHN) PTS 6-17  points sheet

As per point sheet Chinese boxer gave very clinical performance from the start to dominating this bout.

[sameerph]

Article on Indian performance at World boxing championships :-

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news ... ra/236753/

[arjun2761]

What am I missing here?  One guy making the QF is considered a stupendous achievement for India?  (I understand that it is a stupendous achievement for Lakra himself).

Reading this, I get the impression that all our efforts are focused on getting to the olympics as being the ultimate goal (rather than actually contending for a medal once we get there).  For example, I fully expect Carvalho and our hockey team to come back to a hero's welcome if we qualify for the olympics and then spend the remaining months resting on their "laurels."  In other words, I think we are treating the olympics like the world cup soccer -- where qualification is the ultimate goal for most and winning anything is not within the realm of possibility.

[Atithee]

True, most likely.  Even though foreign travel is more affordable for Indians now, in the past, a ticket to such events was the opportunity of the lifetime to have an all-paid vacation to an exotic place.  Winning a medal was neither expected nor achieved.  Even now, there is a disgustingly high number of "support" staff sent with each delegation (sometimes the delegation has more members than participants).  These trips are mostly junkets for the officials -- they could care less what the player achieved.

[indiansportsfan]

Lets not downplay the achievement of Lakra. That he managed to finish in the top 8 of the world in a sport in which all the major countries of the world participated (ok, except for Cuba) is no mean achievement. I dont see many sports in which we manage to finish in the top 8 of the world in a global sport. Only shooting I think.

[arjun2761]

Nobody is downplaying the achievement of Lakra.  The smug comments of the coach is what I am having trouble with.

[jayakris]

Arjun -- I did not really find anything smug in what the coach said.  The writer seems to have reported a lot of stuff about all the details he was saying, and it looked like he was saying too much.  He did not seem to say anything to indicate that we did anything stupendous.  At least that was my feeling.

Boxing coaches are knownaround the world to be arrogant and pompous big mouths anyway (that is an essential ingredient to their success in motivating their wards), right? ...  Perhaps we shold be glad is Sandhu is a big mouth too!

Jay

[arjun2761]

The Indian team returned today, and coach GS Sandhu appeared a reasonably happy man. “I am very pleased with Lakra’s performance, and I noticed that Indians have started getting respect from the world fraternity. Boxers from a number of countries came up to us and expressed their wish to train with our boxers —either in their country or here in India. England, Australia, Costa Rica, Ghana, Columbia and the Czech Republic were among them,” he said.

I see nothing for the coach to be happy about beside Lakra's QF.  The fact that the others see Indians as good punching bags should not be a cause for happiness unless he was more interested in training jaunts to those countries.

Also, for the coach, Lakra's qualification by itself seems to the definition of success rather than actually winning a medal.  In other words, I think he would be entirely happy if another couple of guys qualify even if they have no hope of winning anything.

[sameerph]

4 Indian boxers have moved into the semi finals of Asian Boxing championships. A win in the SF will ensure a place in the Bejing olympics .


http://www.rediff.com/sports/2008/jan/30box.htm

[arjun2761]

A win in the SF will ensure a place in the Bejing olympics

True for all categories except the 91 Kg where I think you have to win it all to qualify.  Why this different standard -- maybe because of a smaller field?

[sameerph]

A win in the SF will ensure a place in the Bejing olympics

True for all categories except the 91 Kg where I think you have to win it all to qualify.  Why this different standard -- maybe because of a smaller field?

Yes, both 81-91 kg. & 91+ Kg have only 16 player field at Olympics as compared to all other categories which will have 28 player field.
There is also a very small quota of 2 boxers each given to Asia in these 2 categories as compared to 5 or 6 in other categories.

After the world boxing championships, there are 38 places remaining for Asian players. 19 of these will be given away at this event in Thailand & 19 more in last qualifying event at Kzakhstan in March. Hopefully, at least 3-4 Indian boxers will join Anthresh Lakra who was the lone Indian to qualify at world championships.

[akmohanty]

semifinals must have been today. any updates? not able to find a decent website which gives them.

[sameerph]

Akhil Kumar becomes the second Indian boxer to qualify for olympics. Other Indians lost in the Semi finals though.

Amandeep Singh who beat current Asian games champion in the Qf lost a close bout against Uzbek boxer . Others lost tamely.

News from rediff :-

http://www.rediff.com/sports/2008/feb/01box.htm


You can find detailed results at this AIBA site . ( Todays's results are not updated yet)

http://www.aiba.org/default.aspx?pId=872

[akmohanty]

not a good success ratio, but congrats to akhil !!!

[jaydeep]

Another impressive thing about Akhil Kumar's win is, in this 1st Asia Boxing Olympic Qualifying Tournament he won every match with RSCOS (Referee Stop Contest Outscored) in R3 ... Really happy to see our boxer managed to score so many points in a bout ... So now in the final Thai boxer Worapoj Petchkoom.