Vijender Singh (75kg) made a return to the Indian boxing team along with Thokchom Nanao Singh (49kg) as the selectors picked the team for the World Championships after a two-day trial in Patiala, on Wednesday.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Sunday
Former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Manoj Kumar (64kg) clinched a hard-fought victory but two other Indian boxers bowed out after losing in the first round at the AIBA World Olympic Qualification Tournament in Baku, Azerbaijan.
>There's still hope and plenty to play for, says Rediff.com's Aruneel Sadadekar.
Amit Panghal holds the numero uno position with 420 points, according to the list released by the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Boxing Task Force
The boxers hardly broke a sweat while scooping all the seven gold medals up for grabs, while the shooters ended their campaign with an outstanding tally of 25 gold medals to ensure India's reign at the top remained unchecked in the 12th South Asian Games in Guwahati on Monday. On the penultimate day of competition, the Indian was perched at the top with 289 medals (173 gold, 86 silver and 30 bronze).
India's biggest sporting legends Sachin Tendulkar, Abhinav Bindra and Vishwanathan Anand hailed PV Sindhu for her valiant performance in the Olympic final against world number one Carolina Marin. Abhinav Bindra in his message for Sindhu said that he wasn't as heartbroken after missing out on a medal himself as he is today (Saturday). India's only individual Olympic gold medallist tweeted: "I think I'm more heartbroken today (after Sindhu's loss in final) than I was a week ago! Well played @Pvsindhu1 you are an inspiration to me!"
Indian boxers will return empty-handed from the World Championships for the first time in four years after none of their five quarter-finalists made it to the semi-finals in the biennial mega-event, in Almaty, Kazkakhastan, on Wednesday. After the defeats of fourth seed Shiva Thapa (56kg) and sixth seed Manoj Kumar in the afternoon, Vikash Malik (60kg) and Sumit Sangwan (81kg) also lost their quarter-final bouts in the evening session.
Olympian Sumit Sangwan (81kg) and Vikash Malik (60kg) fought through intense bouts to enter the pre-quarterfinals but Mandeep Jangra (69kg) bowed out after a stiff second-round contest on a mixed day for India in the World Boxing Championships in Almaty on Sunday.
Indian boxers L Devendro Singh (49kg) and Gaurav Bidhuri (52kg) will be pulling in some punches in the upcoming season of the World Series of Boxing, after grabbing two-year contracts with Polish and Italian franchises.
Olympic champion shooter Abhinav Bindra appealed to AIBA to help clean up the administrative mess in Indian boxing and pave the way for the country's pugilists to participate at the Rio Olympics under the national flag. Ever willing to boost the confidence of fellow athletes, Bindra visited the Indian boxing squad competing at the AIBA World Olympic Qualification tournament here and interacted with them individually.
Asian champion Amit Panghal (52kg) became the first Indian to enter the finals of the men's AIBA World Boxing Championships while Manish Kaushik (63kg) signed off with a bronze medal after going down in the semi-finals
A livid Mary Kom asked her vanquished opponent Nikhat Zareen to prove herself in the ring instead of making irritating comments.
Amit Panghal (52kg) and Kavinder Singh Bisht (56kg) remained on course for their second successive international gold medals this year and India looked good to notch up its best ever performance in the Asian Boxing Championships.
The change means that Panghal, an Asian Games gold-medallist in 49kg, will now have to move to 52kg, while Thapa and Kaushik will have to forego the 60kg division and move up to the newly-created 63kg. Thapa is a three-time Asian Championships medallist and a world bronze-medallist, while Kaushik won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games last year.
Seventeen shooters, prominent among who is Beijing Olympics gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, are among 45 athletes selected by the government for financial assistance under the Target Olympic Podium (TOP) scheme.
With little over a week left for the beginning of Rio Olympics, the Indian athletes have started arriving in batches here for the sporting extravaganza. Most of the disciplines have begun sending their teams in batches and others are expected over the next few days. At the dining hall during breakfast on Wednesday, Chef de Mission of the Indian contingent, Rakesh Gupta had a short and pleasant meeting with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, who was there to see the Olympic Village.
Determined to keep the Olympic dream alive despite the long-standing administrative mess, a spirited Indian boxing team, featuring the likes of M C Mary Kom and Shiva Thapa, will take off on Monday night for the Asian Qualifiers in Qian'an City, China. Ten men and three women form the 13-strong team which will be in action from March 25. In the men's competition, only the top three boxers in each weight category will make the Olympic cut with the third spot decided via a box-off between the two bronze-medallists. In the women's draw, only the gold and silver medal winners will qualify for Rio de Janeiro. In the absence of a recognised federation, the Indians will once again compete under the flag of the International Boxing Association (AIBA). "It is going to be a very tough tournament because not many from the Asian region qualified during last year's World Championships. I am expecting around 30 countries and more than 250 boxers to be there at this event," national coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu told PTI ahead of the team's departure.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Wednesday
Satish Kumar (+91kg) entered the semi-finals of the Asian Boxing Championships, joining L Devendro Singh (49kg), Shiva Thapa (56kg) and Vikas Krishan (75kg) who had earlier assured themselves of medals and places in the October World Championships.
MC Mary Kom and the seasoned L Sarita Devi spearheaded India's gold rush at the second India Open boxing tournament, which concluded on Friday.
He had already scripted history but the Indian boxing ace said he wasn't quite done as he aimed for the gold in the World Championship
India were assured of an unprecedented two medals at the AIBA Men's World Boxing Championships after Amit Panghal (52kg) and Manish Kaushik (63kg) entered the semi-finals with impressive victories.
India's nine Olympic-bound boxers will travel abroad for a three-week training stint after getting a few days' break following a record-shattering medal haul by the country's pugilists at the recently-concluded Asian Championships in Dubai.
Vijender Singh (75kg) turned in a solid showing despite being down with viral fever to beat Sweden's Hampus Henriksson in his opening bout at the World Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Thursday.
It was a celebration of woman power in sports as Olympic stars PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik and Dipa Karmakar were on Monday conferred India's highest sporting honour -- the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna -- along with shooter Jitu Rai in a gleaming awards ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi.
A recap of the performance by Indian athletes on Day 10 at the Rio Olympics on Monday
Promising gymnast Dipa Karmakar, the women's hockey team and shooter Heena Sidhu on Sunday checked into the Olympic Village to further boost the Indian contingent at the Rio Games beginning on August 5.
Representatives of several northeastern organisations on Monday rejected the committee formed by the Centre to suggest remedial measures to address their concerns.
M C Mary Kom struck gold in the women's competition but India's men were denied a complete sweep by traditional powerhouses Cuba and Uzbekistan on an exciting final day of the India Open boxing tournament, in Delhi, on Thursday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Sunday, hosted the National Sports awardees, including Rio Olympics silver medallist PV Sindhu and bronze winner Sakshi Malik, at his 7 Race Course Road residence in New Delhi.
Bitter about the administrative mess which he feels cost him a medal at the Rio Olympics, pugilist Manoj Kumar says Indian boxing is on death bed right now and desperately needs intervention from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "I am sure that I would have won a medal if India was not suspended from the International Boxing Association (AIBA).] "Had the first round in that pre-quarterfinal bout gone in my favour, the result would have been different," Manoj told PTI in an interview.
Commonwealth Games silver-medallist L Devendro Singh (49kg) stormed into the semi-finals, while Manoj Kumar (64kg) and Sumit Sangwan (81kg) entered the quarters to be just one win away from clinching Olympic berths at the International Boxing Association's (AIBA) World Qualifying Tournament in Baku on Tuesday.
What happens when you are in a life-and-death situation and, as it happens often in such situations, you just have a moment to make a choice? Director Amit Kumar's Monsoon Shootout makes you sit on the proverbial horns of such a dilemma.
It's a dip that India can probably relate to given that the country went from two gold, three silver and four bronze in Guangzhou 2010 to a mere two bronze at Incheon 2014.
A promotion promised six years back hasn't come through even now and the sponsors also never quite warmed up to him but Olympic-bound boxer Manoj Kumar says his stubborn streak prevented him from quitting the sport during what seemed like a never-ending dark phase.
Vikas Krishan, one of the three Indian boxers to qualify for the Rio Olympics, is confident of winning a bronze medal at the upcoming Games, which could be his last.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Tuesday.
Vikash Malik (60kg), Sumit Sangwan (81kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg) joined Shiva Thapa (56kg) and Manoj Kumar (64kg) in the quarter-finals, on Tuesday, making it one better than the previous best India achieved in the 2011 edition in Azerbaijan.
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