‘ Need to be mentally better prepared this time’
New Delhi, April 2: The Asian Olympic qualifiers are his last chance to book a ticket to the London Games but star Indian boxer Vijender Singh claims he is least intimidated by the challenge at hand as the situation is all too familiar.
“I have been under pressure ever since I won the bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics. It is nothing new for me. It is there before I leave for any tournament,” the World Championship bronzemedallist said on the eve of the Indian team’s departure for the qualifiers, which begin in Astana, Kazakhstan on April 4.
“There was pressure when I didn’t get a gold in the 2010 Commonwealth Games. I went on to get a gold medal in the Asian Games but that didn’t lessen the pressure. All I can say is that I have be mentally better prepared to deal with it,” the 26year- old middleweight boxer said.
Vijender lost in the first round of the first Olympic qualifiers — the World Championships in Azerbaijan last year.
“It’s the same situation that I faced before the Beijing Games. I had lost in two attempts and was left with just one chance. At that time, there were just two slots available and I went on to win the gold.
“This time, there are four slots in my category. So, I have a better chance. I just have to make the semi- finals,” he explained.
On his chances in the qualifiers, he said,“I have to give my 100 per cent in the ring and that I will do, but the rest of it is in God’s hands. So hopefully he will be kind to me.”
The Haryana pugilist decided against going out of the country for preparation and has restricted his training to the National Institute of Sports in Patalia.
“I have been skipping build- up tournaments in the past one year because I feel comfortable training in Patiala. The facilities are there and I can also recover from injuries, if any, better when I am at home instead of a foreign land,” he said. Meanwhile, national coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu feels the new system of scoring encourages pugilists to be more aggressive and fight with an open guard strategy at the qualifiers.
“They have been told to do away with the closed guard and land as many punches as possible to ensure that judges can see the aggression. Now it is all about the rate at which you land punches because the bouts have become very high scoring,” Sandhu said on the eve of the team’s departure for Astana.