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Star Indian boxer Vijender Singh (75kg) was handed out a tricky draw today as he starts his quest to better his Beijing Games bronze medal winning feat against Danabek Suzhanov of Kazakhstan in the men’s boxing competition at the London Olympics here tomorrow.
The Bhiwani boxer, who put Indian boxing on world map after clinching the bronze in Beijing four years ago, will have a tough task at hand as he aims for a medal of a different hue in his record third Olympic appearance.
The boxing competition, which gets underway at the Excel Arena here, will also see teen sensation Shiva Thapa (56 kg) taking on Mexican boxer Oscar Valdez Fierro.
World Championship bronze medallist Vikas Krishan (69kg) has been seeded third and he is also the only Indian boxer to get a bye.
Five-time world champion MC Mary Kom (51kg) will open her campaign against Polish boxer Karolina Michalczuk in women’s boxing which makes its Olympic debut on August 5.
“The draw is tough, in fact very tricky but we are keeping our fingers crossed because of the good forms of our boxers,” chief boxing coach G S Sandhu told PTI.
Vijender is a former world number one and a World Championship bronze-medallist, while the 18-year-old Shiva is the Asian Olympic Qualifiers’ gold-medallist and this duo carries a lot of expectations for medals.
An unprecedented eight Indian boxers — seven men and for the first time a woman — are in the British capital faced with sky-high expectations.
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