Coaching crisis, heartbreaks, Olympic setbacks: A year of woes for Indian boxing

Indian boxing endured a turbulent year marred by coaching turmoil crushing defeats and a medalless Paris Olympics campaign all of it made worse by the national federations negligence that brought unprecedented embarrassment to the countryThere were very few positives to count in a year when after a widely successful 2023 expectations were skyhighYet no boxer was able to add to the three bronze medals Vijender Singh 2008 M C Mary Kom 2012 and Lovlina Borgohain 2021 that India had secured in the previous editions of the OlympicsNishant Dev unlucky to miss out on an Olympic medal was Indias top performer but the likes of world champions Nikhat Zareen and Lovlina disappointed despite widely held belief that fortunes of womens boxing were following an upward trajectoryOutside the ring the Boxing Federation of Indias BFI negligence cost India an Olympic quota even as administrators globally scrambled to retain the sport on the Olympic rosterControversy and coaching crisisThe dismal performance at the first World Qualifying Tournament where all nine boxers failed to secure a spot at the Paris Games prompted High Performance Director Bernard Dunne to resign from his position while still in Italy less than four months before the OlympicsIt wasnt just the defeats that were troubling but the manner in which the boxers lost that was truly disheartening Frequent knockouts and RSC outclassed defeats pointed to inherent technical flaws which had not been addressed With the exception of Nishant there was hardly any name in Indian boxing who could be spoken about as a success storyAdding to the woes the country soon lost the womens 57kg Olympic quota won by Parveen Hooda at the Asian Games last year after the boxer was handed a 22month suspension by the World AntiDoping Agency WADA for three whereabouts failures within a yearThe 2022 World Championship bronzemedallist failed to submit her whereabouts for the period between April 2022 and March 2023 as mandated by WADA regulationsThe BFI was also to blame for this unprecedented embarrassment given that federation is duly notified of such a lapse by the international bodyThe federation ought to have intervened to ensure that the athlete submitted the required details on timeAs a result India had to fight afresh for qualification in the womens 57kg category the spot ultimately going to Jaismine Lamboria in the final Olympic QualifiersThere were wholesale changes for this event with former Asian Games goldmedallist Amit Panghal replacing Deepak Bhoria in the 51kg categoryEventually Panghal and Nishant made the cut for the quadrennial spectacle along with Jaismine adding to the three quotas won by Nikhat Zareen 50kg Preeti Pawar 54kg and Lovlina 75kg last yearIn all six boxers qualified for Paris a decline from the five men and four woman who represented India in the 2021 Tokyo GamesBarren Olympics Nishants heartbreakHeading into the big event on the back of two consecutive World Championship titles Zareen was hailed as one of Indias strongest medal contendersHowever in the fiercely competitive 50kg category the Telangana boxer was completely outclassed by Chinas Wu Yu in a brutally onesided boutZareen unable to match the relentless pace of her opponent later said that she had not eaten for the last two days to maintain weight and felt weakA win away from a second consecutive Olympic medal Lovlina too went down to a Chinese boxer The Tokyo Games bronze winner couldnt get past familiar foe Li QianFor Panghal who was handed a fairly easy draw it was deja vu as he made yet another prequarterfinal exit from the OlympicsThe most heartbreaking loss however was endured by Nishant The 23yearold was defeated 14 by Mexicos Marco Verde Alvarez in the 71kg quarterfinal despite appearing to dominate the boutThis outcome reignited the fierce debate and outrage over judgingThe devastating result denied Nishant the 2023 world championship bronzemedallist a podium finish in his debut games as the Indian boxing contingent returned emptyhanded from ParisThe sport has been dormant ever since The boxers havent competed in any tournament with the BFI deciding against sending a team for the Asian ChampionshipsIndia joins World BoxingWith the International Olympic Committee IOC threatening to leave boxing out of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics if national federations continued to align themselves with the suspended International Boxing Association IBA India joined the breakaway World Boxing WBHowever the Asian Boxing Confederation ASBC voted against leaving the IBA to join the rival associationBut BFI reaffirmed its support in WB which also has the backing of the IOC by successfully bidding for the hosting rights of the World Boxing Cup Finals next yearThe sports future though remains shrouded in uncertainty and it remains to be seen whether it can manage to hold its place in the OlympicsWith agency inputs