The stage is set for the National junior boxing championship for boys to be held at the Nehru Indoor Stadium here from June 30 to July 4. Almost all the teams have come barring Arunachal Pradesh.
“We are ready and are looking forward to the event”, said A.K. Karunakaran, Secretary, Tamil Nadu Boxing Association, on Tuesday.
Indian boxing is seeing better times after Vijender Singh bagged a bronze in the Beijing Olympics. His performance triggered a boxing frenzy. Now, the sport has produced a lot of young boxers, who have gone to excel in junior International meets. There will be few who would not know boxers like Nano Singh, Suranjai Singh, Vikas Kishan, Naveen and Shiva Thapa.
Some of the boxers who will be keenly watched in this meet are: Surender (Sports Authority of India), Malhan Singh of Haryana, P.L. Prasad of Services, Deeraj Kumar of Services, Jeetender of Haryana, Gurlin Singh of Punjab and Raj Bharath, Silambarasan, A. Ravi of Tamil Nadu. Haryana is the defending champion while Services finished second last year.
The Selection Committee of the Indian Boxing Federation will select 40 outstanding boxers from this meet and they will be put in a National coaching camp. They will take part in the following International boxing championships: Junior International tournament in Turkey during August 2010, Junior International tournament in Kazakhstan during Sep 2010, Junior World Championship during 2010-2011 (venue yet to be decided).
