Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 20 (IANS) Vijender Singh’s bronze medal in the 2008 Beijing Games has inspired his fellow Indian boxers to take a step ahead. They are now eyeing for the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics.

While Vijender and Akhil Kumar, Dinesh Kumar and Suranjoy Singh are preparing to seal their Olympic berths in the Asian Qualifiers at Astana, Kazakhstan, their four compatriots Vikas Krishan (69kg), Manoj Kumar (64kg), Jai Bhagwan (60kg) and L.Devendro Singh (49kg) have already booked their ticket to London with a good show at the World Boxing Championship in Baku last year.

Devendro said Indian boxers are aiming only for the gold medal in the Olympics. He praised the sports ministry for providing all help for the Indian boxers for training abroad.

Devendro is now looking for the training camp in Germany next month.

“The sports ministry has helped us a lot by providing good facilities. Next month we will be training in Germany for 15-20 days. I have great confidence in myself, and I will bring the gold medal for my country,” said Devendro.

Devendro, who was knocked out in quarterfinals of the World Championships, said that Indian boxers are still adapting to the new change in scoring.

“The format of scoring has changed, now even if you are guarding the punches one can score points. So, we have been training and getting accustomed to that,” he said.

Manoj, who won the gold medal in the Commonwealth Games in New delhi, said that training camp overseas would stand them in good stead for the Olympics.

“We all performed really well, now we will be taking part in European invitationals which will be a good experience for us. We have been working on power punching and stamina, whosoever excels in this aspect will win,” said Manoj.