Hamburg: Shiva Thapa and Vikas Krishan will be among India’s best bets to better both the colour and number of medals at the 19th World Boxing Championships, starting here Friday.
Placed joint 49th in the all-time medal count, India have a bronze each to show for from the 2009, 2011 and the 2015 World Championships. Shiva (2015), Vikas (2011) and the now-professional Vijender Singh (2009) are the only ones to have been on the podium of the prestigious event.
For this edition, an eight-strong team has made the cut through the Asian Championships in Tashkent earlier this year.
“Our build-up has been fantastic. We had a good Asian Championships where the boys won two silver and two bronze medals and finished third overall,” the team’s Swedish coach Santiago Nieva told this agency.
“Then we went to France and Czech Republic for training-cum-competition trips and the results were excellent there. So, I am hopeful of a strong performance but I don’t want to make any predictions about the medals,” Nieva added.
To be tied with Australia, Tajikistan and Czech Republic in the all-time medal tally isn’t exactly a true reflection of how far Indian boxing has come since Vijender won the breakthrough bronze in 2009 in Milan.
“This World Championships is going to be slightly different from the previous one because the draws will be opened up. There have been changes in weight categories, some
of those who went to Rio Olympics last year have quit. So there is going to be a lot of churning,” Nieva pointed out. “So, yes, we can hope for more than just one bronze medal.”
The boxers, on their part, also spoke confidently about their chances. “It has been a long journey and we have seen a lot in all these years. World Championships is the premier tournament for us after the Olympics. I am as prepared as I could ever be for a big the event,” said Shiva, all of 24 but a two-time Olympian with three back-to-back Asian Championship medals.
The Assam boxer, who won a bantamweight 56kg bronze in the 2015 edition of the event, will be competing in the lightweight 60kg category this time.
Among others, veteran Manoj Kumar (69kg) and Sumit Sangwan (91kg) cannot also be ruled out from getting a medal.
Press Trust of India