In a country where a cricket tournament is celebrated more like a festival and cricketers are worshiped next to the God, thanks to the star boxer Vijender Singh (Beniwal), the myth is slowly but surely fading away and a new trend is in the making to give boxing the same significance alongside tennis, badminton and wrestling. His rise to the top rank of the boxing world has been an inspiration for the younger generation in India and has brought more aspirants and followers, to the sport.
Singh, the latest poster boy of Indian sports has not only brought the much awaited Olympics acclaim to India, but has also proved that circumstances don’t matter in front of a determined will. However, little did the temple town of Bhiwani in Haryana know that one day it will be in the limelight for such glorious reasons? It has given India the pugilist who took Olympics by surprise and the world by a storm. He became the first Indian boxer to win an Olympic medal when he won the bronze in the middleweight category at 2008 Beijing Olympics.
His struggle from the small town of Bhiwani to Beijing wasn’t a cake walk. Says he, “My father Mahipal Singh Beniwal, a bus driver with the Haryana Roadways, did overtime to raise money for my training. My mother, a homemaker was always morally supportive and took care of my diets. Besides, I myself used to go through the mill in order to sponsor my training at the Bhiwani Boxing Club run by national level boxer and coach Jagdish Singh. I worked sidewise and even tried my hand at modelling to support my coaching.”
Inspired by his elder brother who is also a former boxer and a Havaldar in the army, Vijender also started young. He used to go to the Bhiwani Sports Authority of India for his boxing practices in his childhood. His struggle encompassed striving against poverty, coping with poor infrastructure and training facilities and also disappointment in the 2004 Olympics. But he didn’t lose heart and continue to sweat it out. And all his slogging definitely paid off, with him bagging medals at the Commonwealth and Asian Games, and tournaments in Germany, Baku, Karachi and Scotland.
Vijender’s coach was always hopeful of him making the cut at the Olympics against all oddity. “When I first recognized Vijender, his confidence was awesome. My coaching definitely honed his skills more. I was sure he was going to do India proud. He has the confidence to beat anyone now,” says Jagdish Singh.
Vijender did his primary schooling from Kalwas, secondary school from Bhiwani and finally a Bachelor’s degree from Vaish College. “When the boxer in me started getting recognized, my parents decided to not pressurise me to continue my studies, as they felt that I had a talent and passion for boxing. Thanks to their immense support, boxing quickly grew in me from an interest and passion to a career choice,” Vijender recounts.
Vijender’s boxing style, hooks and uppercut are compared by many with style of the character Rocky Balboa in the Rocky film series. Vijender refers to him as one his primary influences, along with boxers Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali, and boxing promoter Don King. In fact, he has already become the latest pin up boy, gracing the room walls of many teenagers.
Besides showcasing his agile moves in boxing, Vijender’s confident looks led him to attract a lot of attention in the field of modelling. He has been making many pleasant appearances on covers of magazines as well as on a number of television shows. But Vijender is not allowing stardom to ensnare him in its false charm. And that’s why he is working with the Haryana police as a police inspector.
“With partaking modelling, I wished to bring the game of boxing in the limelight, make it as popular as possible and catapult it to its deserving place at the top. I have regularly spoken against the bias that Indian media has promoted only cricket as the sole game in India,” the pugilist comments.
According to Vijender, he is not going to end up like many other sportspersons, blinded by the limelight and losing their grip on the game. “I am focused on boxing. I am a boxer first and I know that if not for my medal I would have remained in obscurity. It brought me fame and name and I have an duty towards it,” he adds.
In this way, so what if he couldn’t win the CWG semi-final and had to be satisfied with the bronze? Singh is still a name to reckon with. Felicitated with a number of awards – including Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (2009), India’s highest sporting honour and the prestigious Padma Shri (2010), the credit for reviving the sport of boxing in India undoubtedly goes to this Bhiwani boy.
His struggle from the small town of Bhiwani to Beijing wasn’t a cake walk. Says he, “My father Mahipal Singh Beniwal, a bus driver with the Haryana Roadways, did overtime to raise money for my training. My mother, a homemaker was always morally supportive and took care of my diets. Besides, I myself used to go through the mill in order to sponsor my training at the Bhiwani Boxing Club run by national level boxer and coach Jagdish Singh. I worked sidewise and even tried my hand at modelling to support my coaching.”
Inspired by his elder brother who is also a former boxer and a Havaldar in the army, Vijender also started young. He used to go to the Bhiwani Sports Authority of India for his boxing practices in his childhood. His struggle encompassed striving against poverty, coping with poor infrastructure and training facilities and also disappointment in the 2004 Olympics. But he didn’t lose heart and continue to sweat it out. And all his slogging definitely paid off, with him bagging medals at the Commonwealth and Asian Games, and tournaments in Germany, Baku, Karachi and Scotland.
Vijender’s coach was always hopeful of him making the cut at the Olympics against all oddity. “When I first recognized Vijender, his confidence was awesome. My coaching definitely honed his skills more. I was sure he was going to do India proud. He has the confidence to beat anyone now,” says Jagdish Singh.
Vijender did his primary schooling from Kalwas, secondary school from Bhiwani and finally a Bachelor’s degree from Vaish College. “When the boxer in me started getting recognized, my parents decided to not pressurise me to continue my studies, as they felt that I had a talent and passion for boxing. Thanks to their immense support, boxing quickly grew in me from an interest and passion to a career choice,” Vijender recounts.
Vijender’s boxing style, hooks and uppercut are compared by many with style of the character Rocky Balboa in the Rocky film series. Vijender refers to him as one his primary influences, along with boxers Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali, and boxing promoter Don King. In fact, he has already become the latest pin up boy, gracing the room walls of many teenagers.
Besides showcasing his agile moves in boxing, Vijender’s confident looks led him to attract a lot of attention in the field of modelling. He has been making many pleasant appearances on covers of magazines as well as on a number of television shows. But Vijender is not allowing stardom to ensnare him in its false charm. And that’s why he is working with the Haryana police as a police inspector.
“With partaking modelling, I wished to bring the game of boxing in the limelight, make it as popular as possible and catapult it to its deserving place at the top. I have regularly spoken against the bias that Indian media has promoted only cricket as the sole game in India,” the pugilist comments.
According to Vijender, he is not going to end up like many other sportspersons, blinded by the limelight and losing their grip on the game. “I am focused on boxing. I am a boxer first and I know that if not for my medal I would have remained in obscurity. It brought me fame and name and I have an duty towards it,” he adds.
In this way, so what if he couldn’t win the CWG semi-final and had to be satisfied with the bronze? Singh is still a name to reckon with. Felicitated with a number of awards – including Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (2009), India’s highest sporting honour and the prestigious Padma Shri (2010), the credit for reviving the sport of boxing in India undoubtedly goes to this Bhiwani boy.
No comments:
Post a Comment