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Another feather in Vijender’s cap
Vijender Singh, the Bhiwani boxer who last month won bronze in the President’s Cup in Taiwan, wins gold in an invitational international competition in Germany, reports Saurabh Duggal.
Things are gradually falling in place for Vijender Singh. Last month, the Bhiwani boxer won bronze in the President’s Cup in Taiwan — it also included a quarterfinal win over an Athens gold medallist.
Soon after, the bronze medallist at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games was conferred with the Bhim Award, Haryana’s highest sporting award, and then followed his appointment to the post of inspector in the Haryana Police.
But the icing on the cake has been Vijender’s latest conquest —winning gold in an invitational international competition in Germany on Saturday.
“We had a good training-cum-competition programme in Germany and the gold medal in an invitational tournament was great,” Vijender told HT from Germany.
“I’m happy that my preparations for the Olympics are moving in the right direction,” he said.
“I have beaten almost every boxer from Asia, many of them who have qualified for Beijing. And in Germany I got a chance to compete with the European boxers.”
“I’m thankful to the Haryana government for inducting me into Police, it will definitely boost my confidence ahead of the Beijing Games,” he added.
Vijender is one of the five Beijing-bound boxers, who are without a sponsor. Akhil Kumar, Jatinder Kumar and Dinesh Kumar are in the Mittal Champions Trust and Samsung supports A.S. Lakra. “I will be representing the country in the Olympics for the second consecutive time. I should have got some sponsor but not having one will not slow me down,” he said.
Jitender shines
Jitender Kumar too had an impressive outing and won his first-ever international gold in the Germany meet.
