Inside the ring, they are fast and furious, scheming and calculating at the same time. Off it, they are hardly audible and prefer to be away from the limelight. K. Manikandan and Raj Bharath showed fine ring craft and excellent hand-eye co-ordination to bag gold in their respective weight categories—feather (57 Kg) and welter (66 Kg) in the Junior National boxing championship for boys at the Nehru Indoor Stadium lawn recently. M. Senthil, coach of the Tamil Nadu team in the junior Nationals, termed the host performance as an improvement and sees the two boxers as the future of Tamil Nadu. “They have a great future ahead of them. These two can do well in the senior section too. Our base is quite strong. We need to encourage them,” he said.
Chalk and cheese
Manikandan and Raj are like chalk and cheese in terms of style and technique. While Raj prefers attacking boxing, Manikandan is basically a defensive boxer preferring to attack only when there is a need to. It was evident in the Nationals in Chennai. In the final, Manikandan rarely ventured out of his fully crouched stance against Haryana's Deepak, who too employed the same technique. Manikandan opened up briefly in the third and final round. “That's his style. And he uses his height well and has a good physique,” said Senthil.
Raj walked in majestically to the ring and was authoritative in his final bout against Sandeep Sharma of Services. He took a leap and landed a series of blows on Sandeep in the final round that helped him win the contest. “What sets Raj apart is that he packs a lot of power for his short size and has fine observing capacities,” said Senthil.
Raj trains at YMCA Nandanam under Senthil while Devanand coaches Manikandan at Perambur Railway ground. Both hardly have time for any other activities as their life revolve around academics and boxing.
“For me, the gold was unbelievable,” said Raj, “as I had mild fever before the semifinals and suffered a crack in my knuckle before the tournament.” Born in Ambur (Vellore District), Raj has been a boxer for the last six years and has been a junior State and National champion for the last two years. Manikandan's father works as a labourer and is the lone earning member of the family. Coached by Devanand, Manikandan, his father said, was initiated into boxing mainly to wean him away from all possible evils. The two harbour hopes of participating in the Olympics someday and win a medal if possible. With support from Tamil Nadu Boxing Association coupled with the boxers' hardwork, the teen's dreams could well translate into reality.
