Panghal trains in the hills for last shot at glory

Subhash Rajta

Shimla, July 20

His hands are moving back and forth at lightning speed. His footwork seems even quicker. Into the 12th round — each lasting a minute — of intense sparring with different boxers, Amit Panghal shows no sign of fatigue. In the previous round, the diminutive Rohtak boxer had even knocked down a sparring partner 5 kg heavier than him. As the 12th round ends, with Panghal still looking good for a few more rounds, the big multipurpose hall of the High Altitude Training Centre in Shilaroo, about 50 km from Shimla, reverberates with thunderous applause and shout-outs.

Panghal’s jumbo 14-member support team, comprising coaches, physiotherapists, a masseur, doctor and several sparring partners, has the ‘mission accomplished’ smile playing on their faces. After all, the main objective of coming to the hills and skipping the training trip to Germany with the other members of the national squad was to take his stamina several notches higher.

One can’t guarantee a result

Our month-long training here has gone really well. One can’t guarantee a result but he’s as ready as one could ever be to put up a good show at the Paris Olympics. —Devendro Singh, A former Olympian

In the “Paris-like weather” at Shilaroo, the boxer and the support staff worked tirelessly to make amends for his Tokyo Olympics disappointment, where ‘Chotta Tyson’ lost in the first round despite being a red-hot medal favourite. “Our month-long training here has gone really well. One can’t guarantee a result but he’s as ready as one could ever be to put up a good show at the Paris Olympics,” said Devendro Singh, a former Olympian and part of Panghal’s coaching team.

For Panghal, the reasons to skip the Germany trip are quite basic – ghar ka khana and sweating it out in the company of known sparring partners and support staff. “I don’t think I can achieve much without my team. I feel good and positive having them around me,” says Panghal, trying to pull in as many of them as possible into the frame for a photograph. “Also, I don’t like going without Indian food for too long,” said Panghal. Rohit Kashyap, his personal physio, reveals Panghal really missed Indian food while training in Italy ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. “The training camp in Italy went on for one and a half months. He craved Indian food, and wasn’t in the best mental frame while heading into his bout,” he said. “This time he will go to the Olympics a lot happier.”

Happier or not, the 28-year-old Armyman will certainly go to Paris with a much lighter burden of expectations as compared to Tokyo 2020. Having gone to Tokyo as the top-ranked boxer in his weight category (52kg), with the Asian Games gold and the World Championship silver medal already in his kitty, the expectations were sky high.

Unfortunately, he fell in the first round, and that heartbreaking loss gradually knocked him out of the scheme of things in Indian boxing. Boxers waiting in the wings were pushed ahead of him. It wasn’t until the last Olympics qualifier just a month ago that he was given a chance to get a crack at the Olympics quota, which he grabbed with both hands. “He has been through a lot since that first-round loss in the Tokyo Olympics. From the heady high of being a top-ranked boxer and the brightest medal hope, his world came crashing down,” said Rohit Kashyap, his physio.

The support staff says Panghal has shut out all distractions to stay fully focused on his goal, so much so that he skipped the interaction of the Indian Olympics contingent with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Panghal has taken a sabbatical from social media as well, where he used to be quite active not too long back. “He has stayed away from media interactions, and any other social activity that might have distracted him even for a moment,” said Kavinder Bisht, an international boxer and a key member of the sparring team. “For a month, we have stayed totally cut off from the outside world. All we did was train, go for a run into the forest and up the hills. We have been training together for more than a decade now, and I can say with confidence that he’s in his best physical shape at the moment,” said Bisht.

The diminutive Panghal, not given to excessive talk, seems to agree. “It’s good, better than the last time,” he said, when asked about his preparedness for the biggest test of his sporting career. Tokyo was supposed to be that — his biggest test. It’s a wonder that he’s risen from the ashes to fight another day and earn another shot at Olympics glory.