NEWS

Eye on medal, ear for music, Akhil & Co pack a punch

Beijing, August 6 : You'd think that all a boxer needed to gear up for a big competition was a heavy bag (punching bag to most of us) or a sparring partner. But at DiTan Gymnasium, the training venue for boxing, secrecy surrounds every squad. And volunteers are on the ready to ward off any sport espionage. So, to find one's way to the Indian squad through the maze of thick blue curtains, shut your eyes and follow the music.

Faint strains of Hindi music from a mobile phone provide the soundtrack to the five boxers who have stirred hopes for a medal this time round. Or the Bhiwani quartet plus one, as they are better known.

Coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu and trainer Heath Mathews are making the boxers work up a furious rhythm, rotating them between fast practice in the ring, battles with the heavy bag, and softer exercise to focus the eyes. And then suddenly, Akhil Kumar, the biggest hope of the five-some in the bantamweight category (54 kg) breaks into song: "Zindagi har kadam ek nayi jang hai, jeet jaayengey hum."

Is this the team song? Oh no, they laugh later. Listen to our entire collection, says Vijender (75 kg), we just need energetic music. He and Akhil, Dinesh Kumar (81 kg) and Jitender Kumar (51 kg), hail from within kilometers of each other in the environs of Bhiwani. This clustering has won the area the name, Little-Cuba. It does not take much imagination to gauge what a medal would do to the area. As it is, says Vijender, "Jaise all-India mein cricket ka craze hai, vaise Bhiwani mein boxing ka hai (Like there is a craze for cricket in the rest of India, in Bhiwani there is a craze for boxing)."

For now, before the medal, they await the official draw on August 8. A draw is more crucial in boxing than most other sports. With competitors not seeded, top players can confront each other very early, even in the first round. "Boxing is a different ballgame," explains Sandhu. "Each bout is a championship."

Draw crucial

The draw is important, concedes AL Lakra of Jamshedpur (57 kg), but we have achieved so much, it should not worry us. As the music at last switches to "Eye of the Tiger", he smiles meaningfully when asked about the great Lakra legacy in hockey. Hockey in these Games has a big India-sized absence, this Lakra is dreaming of India's first boxing medal.

Akhil, 27, bears the burden of expectations after beating the Athens silver medalist, Thailand's Worapoj Petchkoom, in February to qualify for the Olympics. But Athens is a memory he's probably tried to forget, having been knocked out in the first round. So, does he play his favourite music in his mind before a bout to fight pressure, as cricketers from the Caribbean do? No, then it's just a prayer to God. But sound and how he senses it tell Akhil a lot. When the score is up, he says, he hears everything around, the roar of the spectators, the words of the support staff. When it's down, he hears nothing, not even the coach. Then it's time to close his eyes and tell himself, I have to win.

Individual strengths

Akhil's very determined, says Sandhu as he counts off each boxer's strengths. "He's a strongwilled fighter, sharp and powerful. He can out-box anyone on his day. Vijender is a calm, cool boxer," he continues, " with a lot of inner strength, he has a good, sharp punch and counter-punch. Jitender carries a formidable single power punch. Lakra too is strong and determined, with strong single and double punches." And as we chat, they ask, would you prefer the music switched off? Certainly not.

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