NEW DELHI: His Olympic dreams shattered, one of Indian boxing’s most successful names — M Suranjoy Singh (52kg) — thought of quitting the sport after losing in the Asian Qualifiers’ second round last month but decided to keep going after hearing the national anthem at a medal ceremony.
Suranjoy was one of India’s strongest contenders for a London Olympics berth this year but the 26-year-old missed out on both the qualifying chances, losing to the same opponent twice.
“I was very disturbed when I lost in the Asian Qualifiers. I thought of quitting because this was the third time in a row that I was missing out on an Olympic berth,” an emotional Suranjoy said recalling the medal ceremonies of gold medal winners Shiva Thapa (56kg) and Sumit Sangwan (81kg) during the Asian Qualifiers. . “I just went out after a while in a very disturbed state of mind, thought to myself that may be this is it but then somehow, I came back to the arena, listened to the national anthem and decided that I have to give myself another chance,” said the boxer who clinched seven back-to-back international gold medals in 2010.
“I don’t see myself in Olympics again but certainly in next year’s World Championships, I will be there and after that I will see what I have to do,” he said. (PTI)
