New Delhi: History-making performances, quite a bit of selection drama on the sidelines and some ignominy due to big-ticket dope fails — Indian boxing was all this and much more in an action-packed year dominated by pint-sized dynamo Amit Panghal.
To count the positives, the 23-year-old Panghal fetched India its first ever silver at the men’s world championships, the redoubtable M C Mary Kom was mostly in top form and medals poured in internationally courtesy a deep talent pool. In the professional circuit, Vijender Singh remained unbeaten, still looking for an opponent who can stand up to the raw power of his punches. On the downside, a flip-flop selection policy led to six-time world champion Mary Kom being dragged into an unsavoury controversy, and the accomplished duo of Neeraj Phogat (women’s camp) and Sumit Sangwan (men’s camp) flunked dope tests, sending down shockwaves within the fraternity.
Panghal’s 2019 gold rush began in the tournament, which was also his last competition in the 49kg category. Former junior world champion Nikhat Zareen and Meena Kumari Devi became the first set of Indian women boxers to finish on top at the same event.
Zareen later went on to hit the headlines by vociferously raising the demand for a trial against Mary Kom. Panghal moved up to 52kg in March and though he sounded a bit nervous about the shift, the results told a different story.
He grabbed a gold immediately, at the Asian Championships in April, to assert his supremacy in the new division. Pooja Rani, a boxer who felt shy about wearing gloves at the start of her career, ensured that women too went home with a gold with her best ever performance at the event. Mary Kom gave it a miss to prepare herself for the world championships. Then came the world championships in September and October, the blue-riband event which lost some of its sheen after being stripped of Olympic Qualifier status by the International Olympic Committee due to the alleged administrative mess and financial mismanagement in the International Boxing Association (AIBA).
There was some drama when the Indian women’s squad was finalised for it as Zareen protested after being stopped from appearing for a scheduled trial bout.
Nonetheless, the BFI managed to create a controversy where none should have existed, by denying Zareen a scheduled trial bout and leaving its decision for quite late in the day. In the world championship for men, Panghal gave India a watershed moment by making the finals after Manish Kaushik (63kg) fetched the bronze, which had earlier been also achieved, in 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015. The silver made Panghal the undisputed top name in Indian men’s boxing and he capped the year by winning the Best Boxer Award at the BFI’s first ever pro-style league. As for the women, 20-year-old Manju Rani, who lost her father – a BSF man — to cancer in 2010, found the individual glory she was looking for when she took to the sport.
She was the lone Indian to make the women’s world championship final this time and signed off with a silver medal. The BFI had decided that the gold and silver-winners from the women’s world championship would be given direct selection for next year’s Olympic qualifiers. (PTI)
