While the National Institute of Sports (NIS), Patiala, is host to any number of sportspersons at any given point of time, early mornings are generally quiet by an outsider’s standards. Thursday morning in the first block of the Dhyan Chand Hostel was different, though. As national boxing coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu read out the ten-point selection criteria list for the world boxing championships trials to the boxers, it was anything but quiet on the narrow balcony leading to the boxers’ rooms.

“Czech jeeta, China jeeta aur ab Italy ki bari hai (Czech conquered, China conquered, now it’s Italy’s turn),” boomed a voice over all the clatter of the search for kits and sparring partners. It was Olympic bronze medallist Vijender, echoing the feelings of perhaps every boxer present on the campus, as he threw a glove to sparring partner Jai Bhagwan.

The World Championships will be held in Milan and trials for the Indian team for the September event were held late on Thursday. The Indian squad will have just one member in each weight category, making selection difficult, but that has not stopped anyone here from talking of victories. It is perhaps a measure of the camaraderie that the boxers share that, in a sport as intensely individual as boxing, it will be the combined effort of every person associated with the sport that will matter in the final result.

Training together

“Unlike in other games, we have been quite fortunate to spend most of the time together at NIS. We train together all the time and it is useful in correcting technical flaws. After I returned from Zhuhai, a lot of fellow boxers, who saw recorded CDs of my fight during night sessions here, were quick to point out my mistakes,” says Suronjay Singh, who ended India’s 15-year-old wait for a gold medal at the Asian Championships in Zhuhai (China) last month.

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