Right now, three of India’s five boxers are advancing to the quarter-finals in Beijing, putting them each just one win away from a medal: Akhil Kumar (bantamweight), his cousin Jitender Kumar (flyweight), and Vijender Kumar (middleweight).
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Part time model, police inspector, and possibly India’s first professional boxer. |
Given India’s poor showing in track and field, where all the athletes were eliminated in the qualification rounds, and the decision to pull India’s sole weightlifter after (what turned out to be a false) positive on a doping test, there is a lot riding on the performance of the three Kumars.
On the positive side, it’s a historic opportunity for India. Abinav Bindra’s gold medal was India’s first ever individual gold at the Olympics, if any of these three make it to the top, the country will celebrate as if Michael Phelps was their very own.
The fights promise to be exciting as well. Jitender, who is the only novice Olympian of the three, will next face off against three-time European champion Russian Georgy Balakshin in a rematch of their 2007 World Championship fight, where Balakshin prevailed by a single point. (clips from first round, via UB)
All three boxers (plus teamate Dinesh Kumar who got lost in the first round) come from a single boxing club – the Bhiwani Boxing Club in the village city of Bhiwani, Haryana, a place known as India’s “little Cuba”. This is the heartland of Indian boxing:
The place spawns hundreds of young fighters who spar every evening at the five local boxing schools. Here, learning to box is a passport to a secure government job and an opportunity to do something meaningful in life. [Link]
Up till now, boxing has received little popular recognition in India, something that might change after this Olympics:
It is not easy becoming a boxer in a cricket-crazy country. “People here think boxers are violent or mad” … “My blood boils when everybody goes gaga over cricket” says Vijender. [Link]
As a result, Vijender (the middleweight and possibly the most promising of the three) supplements the money that the government awarded him for victories in the Commonwealth and Asian Games with part time work modelling, and a job as a police inspector, all the time dreaming of becoming India’s first professional boxer:
“A promoter like Don King, a ring inside Madison Square Garden, and millions of dollars per bout. That is my dream, that is where I want to be,” [Link]
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Who knows, he might just be a contender.
Update: And then there were two. Akhil Kumar lost to Veaceslav Gojan in the quarter-finals of the men’s 54 kg bantamweight category. Given that he narrowly defeated current world champion Sergey Vodopyanov on Indian independence day, this is must be a disappointment. (Video) (HT: Dhoni)
Those events are not exactly the most popular spectator sports. The Decathlon which has ten events in track and field is far more popular and the winner is anointed the World’s Greatest Athlete.
Despair not my friends. The next Decathlon is belongs to nerds, cos we have cracked the code. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Ok, enough.
On the contrary I think that given the very diverse skills(track, swimming, fencing, equestrian), equipment(pistols to horses) and environment(track , pool and equestrian course) needed for training for the pentathlon, it is very expensive and also hard to find coaches and horse trainers/veternarians to sustain this sport. The decathlon while being more in number is still essentially track & field, which doesn’t require widely varying equipment & environment.
Vijender just lost 8-5. Oh well, at least he got a bronze medal, which is quite an accomplishment.
The winner of the Olympic Decathlon aka the World’s Greatest Athlete is american Bryan Clay, who is half japanese and half african-american.
Usain Bolt of Jamaica wins his third gold medal and breaks his third world record. Amazing athlete. On a per capita basis Jamaica must be on top of the gold medals chart with 6 golds.
The U.S. once a boxing powerhouse wins a single bronze medal in boxing, the same as India!
China with one bronze medal and three boxers in the final gold medal round has more boxing medals than boxing superpower Cuba!
The British have had their best showing in the gold medal rankings since 1920!
China, the new olympics superpower, will end up with at least 10 more gold medals than America. There were also quite a few chinese athletes and coaches representing other nations.
Europeans continued their domination in the sports involving boats, bikes and horses which are among the least international of the olympic events.