Date:06/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/06/stories/2008090659821900.htm

Sport - Boxing

Railways, Services to renew rivalry

Sports Reporter

BHATINDA: Railways and Services are all set to renew their rivalry in the 55th National boxing championships, starting at the Giani Zail Singh Stadium here on Saturday.

Coming close on the heels of India winning its first ever Olympic medal in boxing, the event is likely to attract more attention than before. The heroes from Beijing — bronze medallist Vijender Singh and quarterfinalists Akhil Kumar and Jitender Kumar — will give the competition a miss as they are on a break after their hectic Olympic programme.

Vijender (75 kg) recently left Railways to join Haryana Police while Akhil (54 kg) and Jitender (51 kg) have followed Vijender’s path after being offered top posts in the State police department. This, in turn, will affect Railways’ chances of retaining the overall championship, a fact acknowledged by its coach Jaidev Bisht.

The star boxers are, however, likely to be present here to inspire the 350 pugilists from 31 states and seven units.

Railways will pin its hopes on the likes of Dilbagh Singh (69 kg), the ‘Best Boxer’ of last year’s Nationals, and comeback man Diwakar Prasad, the best Indian performer in the Athens Olympics, who missed the action last year due to typhoid.

Services will heavily bank on two stalwarts — defending national champion Som Bahadur Pun (64 kg), 2007 Arjuna Award winner and Doha Asian Games bronze medallist Varghese Johnson (+91 kg) and Sanjay Kishan Kolte (48 kg), a quarterfinalist in Doha.

Another boxer to be in focus during the tournament will be Commonwealth championship winner Sunil Kumar (51 kg) from Haryana.

The chief national coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu said though the championship would be a crowd-puller, the federation should take steps to make the sport more popular.

“It’s important how we exploit the current rise in popularity. Though I don’t expect the standard of competition to go up dramatically the boys certainly will be bubbling with energy after what Vijender, Akhil and Jitender did in Beijing,” he said.