‘Silver or gold’

Indiarsquos boxing medal hopes at the Paris Games will hinge on how its women pugilists perform feels the countryrsquos lone Olympic medalwinning male boxer Vijender Singh who expects the Nikhat Zareenled squad to fetch at least two podium finishesZareen 50kg Preeti Pawar 54kg Jaismine Lamboria 57kg and Tokyo bronzewinner Lovlina Borgohain 75kg make up the Indian womenrsquos squad while Amit Panghal 51kg and debutant Nishant Dev 71kg are the two male boxers to have qualified for ParisIn a freewheeling interview to PTI editors at its headquarters the 38yearold Vijender who won a bronze in the 2008 Beijing Games said he expects the women to do wellVijender SinghldquoI havenrsquot really followed the fortunes of the male boxers but whatever I have read about women boxers has been encouraging The girls will do well I hope we get one or two medals It could be a silver or may be even a goldrdquo Vijender who is also a BJP leader saidldquoIt might be that they the women boxers will change the colour of the medalsrdquo he addedAlso ReadHattrick of medals will be tough for SindhuBesides Vijender only two other Indian boxersmdashMC Mary Kom London 2012 and Borgohain Tokyo 2021mdashhave won bronze medals at the Olympics but none from the country has managed to reach the final and fight for gold The women boxers have done exceedingly well in the runup to the Games with Zareen and Borgohain becoming world champions in 2023 and Pawar and Lamoboria picking up bronze medals at the Asian Games as well as the Commonwealth GamesThe men on the other hand have been largely underwhelming barring Dev who won a bronze medal at last yearrsquos world championship to qualify for the Paris GamesldquoThere are less male boxers this time Earlier we used to have five to six but this time only two are goingrdquo Vijender who is also Indiarsquos first male world championship medallist saidThe highest number of Indian male boxers to make the Olympic cut was seven which happened in the 2012 edition In the 2008 Games a then record of five pugilists had travelled to the main event after a stunningly good qualifying campaign ldquoI donrsquot know why the standards have fallen may be the boxers themselves would be betterplaced to explain whatrsquos lackingrdquo he saidAll eyes on boxers Nikhat LovlinaWorld Championship medallists Nikhat Zareen Lovlina Borgohain and Nishant Dev will wade through draws that are at best tricky in their quest to achieve Indiarsquos best Olympic medal tally in boxing when the competition kicks off here on SaturdayIndian boxers have fetched three medals in the Olympics so far all bronze While Vijender Singh remains the only male to have achieved the feat back in the 2008 Beijing Games women stars MC Mary Kom 2012 and Borgohain 2021 later added to the overall haulExpectations are high as twotime reigning world champion Zareen is at the forefront The 28yearold has three of the top medal contenders in the lightflyweight 50kg divisionmdashChinarsquos Wu Yu Thailandrsquos Chuthamat Raksat and Uzbekistanrsquos Sabina Bobokulovmdashin her halfBorgohain will be chasing history to add to her 69kg bronze The Assamese boxer who has bulked up to 75kg will clash with Norwayrsquos Sunniva Hofstad in the first roundThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever