No time for celebration, says Shiva
He is smiling from ear to ear after becoming the youngest Indian boxer to strike gold at the Asian Championships, but teen sensation Shiva Thapa hardly has any time to rest on the laurels as he has already sets his sights on the world championships to be held in October.
Besides Shiva’s 56kg gold, L. Devendro Singh (49kg) and Mandeep Jangra (69kg) fetched silver medals while Manoj Kumar (64kg) settled for a bronze as the team finished joint second in the overall standings.
The team returned from Amman, Jordan, in the wee hours on Wednesday and the boxers were all spunk and energy despite being jet-lagged. “Where is the time to celebrate and all, I will just take a short trip home and head straight back to Patiala (national camp) to prepare for the world championships,” said the Assam-lad.
The world championships are scheduled from October 11 to 27 in Alamty, Kazakhstan, and the trials for the India team will be conducted next month in Patiala.
National coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu also all praise of the team.
“None of my boys disappointed me. I feel proud and extremely satisfied with their performances as well,” said the long-serving coach.
Shiva said the Asian Championships provided valuable exposure to the new scoring system, under which there are no live updates anymore.
“At this event, we realised that it is all about making the first impression because if the judges get a feeling that the boxer is not attacking enough, it is extremely difficult to make a comeback,” he said.
Asked what sets them apart from the previous generation of Indian boxers, Shiva, who became the youngest Indian to qualify for the Olympics last year, said: “We train hard but we don’t think too much about opponents, about reputations. We are not intimidated, we just focus on ourselves and not worry about what the other guy might be upto.”
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