When India sends its team of athletes to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics next year, boxer Amit Panghal will draw a lot of attention. A winner of five major international medals, which includes a silver at the World Championships and two golds at Asian Games and Asian Championships, the 24-year-old will head into his first-ever Olympics with a huge weight of expectations on his shoulders.
Ranked No 1 in the flyweight category of boxers, Panghal is the first pugilist from India after Vijender Singh to sit at the top of the AIBA rankings.
Many, including him, however, felt the postponement of the Olympics from 2020 to 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic would prove to be disadvantageous for Panghal who had gone from strength to strength in the build-up to the Games initially scheduled for 2020.
However, almost six months on from the development, Panghal feels the extra time for preparation for the Olympics has been hugely welcome.
“The first feeling was that if the Olympics were held this year it would have been better but the postponement also has its benefits,” Panghal, who is managed by Baseline Ventures, told Scroll.in.
“In my weight category, I face a lot of tall boxers so I needed to improve reach and also increase my power. During this free time where we haven’t had any competitions I have worked hard on those aspects and having applied it a bit in the national camp, I feel I have eradicated a few of my weaknesses,” he added.
Panghal is currently training at the national boxing camp at NIS Patiala where he is working on slowly building his strength under the new strength and conditioning head of the boxing team, Dan Jefferson who joined this month after a stint with the Inspire Institute of Sport.
“He has been here for 2-3 weeks. He has asked me to slowly increase the load on my body and not be hasty with it. There’s still a lot of time for Olympics,” Panghal said.
“Weight training for boxing is anyway different from the rest and we can’t afford to let our bodies become stiff. We have increased repetitions of the old exercises and have added a few new ones,” he added.
However, due to the health safety protocols of the Sports Authority of India, the boxers in the camp are not being allowed to train with a sparring partner in the ring.
“The fact that we can’t train with a sparring partner makes a lot of difference but we are managing it quite well with our coaches using pads,” he said.
The national team coaches are pushing the Boxing Federation of India and SAI to send the boxing team to Europe for a tour where they would be able to train with sparring partners and also take part in some tournaments.
A plan for a month-long tour to Italy and France has been submitted to BFI and SAI by the High-Performance Director Santiago Nieva.
Panghal, meanwhile, has been busy studying his potential opponents at the Olympics.
“I have a list of all the boxers who have qualified and we study them through video analysis. We are constantly watching videos of their bouts in different competitions, and their bouts against us in the past,” he said.
Panghal added: “Right now in training, we are applying or plans on how to face these boxers. We are not using the ring but still, it’s going on well. Hopefully, we can benefit from it at the Olympics.”
India will be counting on the Rohtak-based boxer to deliver a medal at the Games next year. However, Panghal is not bogged down by the weight of expectations.
“I think the achievements of the past only give me confidence. The fact that I have been World No 1 gives me confidence that I can do well at the Olympics. I also gain confidence through practice and luckily I have been doing well on that front recently,” he said.
Panghal, though, has been insistent on getting his formative coach, Anil Dhankar, to the boxing camp and has requested SAI to allow him into the camp in Patiala.
“I speak with him before every bout about who is my opponent and how can I beat him. I speak with him after the bout about my performance and analyse the strong and weak points in my game. He’s someone I can talk very freely and he’s very important for me in my Olympic preparation,” Panghal said.
The 24-year-old though hasn’t received any positive response from SAI about getting his coach in the camp, but he remains hopeful.
“I hope they get him here as with him I’m able to work on my basics quite well. In boxing, basics are extremely important,” Panghal said.
Panghal is aiming to become just the third Indian boxer to win an Olympic medal after Vijender and Mary Kom. Only 24, Panghal has time on his hands but with a World silver already in his bag and World No 1 tag to go with it, the Rohtak-based pugilist would be keen to make history in Tokyo.
Had there been no pandemic, Panghal might already have been an Olympic-medalist, but the delay might only enhance his chances of joining the elite company even further.