hi INDiA Copyright 2022-2050
The Indian men’s boxing team, comprising the likes of Asian medal-winners Deepak Kumar (51kg), Shiva Thapa (63.5kg), Sanjeet (92kg), left for Belgrade on Wednesday to compete in the world championships starting on October 24, hopeful of offsetting the disappointment of an underwhelming Olympic campaign.
The trio forms the experienced core of the 13-strong squad, which is made up of this year’s national champions. Of these, Thapa is the only one with prior experience of competing in the world event, having claimed a bronze in the 2015 edition.
The boxers are accompanied by a rejigged support staff led by High Performance Director Santiago Nieva and newly-appointed head coach Narender Rana with former Commonwealth Games silver-medallist L Devendro Singh among the assistant coaches.
This would be Nieva’s final assignment with the Indian team after the Boxing Federation of India decided against giving him a long-term extension at the end of the Tokyo Olympics, where none of the male boxers could go past the preliminary rounds.
The world championships would be the boxers’ first international competitive outing after the Tokyo Games. The preparation for it has been far from ideal as the boxers got just about 10 days to practice in a camp after the national championship.
The five men who competed in…