Vijender says Sushil deserves Padma Bhushan

Indian boxer Vijender Singh believes that wrestler Sushil Kumar, who narrowly missed out on the Padma Bhushan award recently, deserved the honour for being the only Indian to win back-to-back medals in Olympics. "Obviously he deserves it as he won back to back at the Olympics. He should have got a Padma Award. I hope he is considered for these awards soon," he said.

About his own career, Vijender said that while he had been training hard he was doing so without a goal in mind, thanks to the suspension on the Indian Boxing Federation (IABF), which has rendered the country's boxers ineligible to compete in any international event.

Training without goal

"You can say I am training without any goal because we don't know when the ban will be lifted," Vijender, who is currently undergoing a camp in Patiala, said. Hoping for an early resolution of the electoral mess that led to IABF's suspension by the world body AIBA late last year, the 27-year-old boxer felt the ban might impact the team's preparation for the World Championship in September, which is followed by the Asian Games.

"We can practice as much we can but if we do not get international exposure our performance will definitely go down. All boxers want this ban to be lifted soon," he said.

Chief boxing coach, G S Sandhu, comforted the boxers yesterday, saying the deadlock will be broken soon as the Indian Olympic Association has sought time from the IOC. "I spoke to my coach G S Sandhu, he said hopefully things will be sorted out soon. IOC has given time to IOA to meet," he said.

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