Indian sports minister and former Olympic medalist, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has announced on 8 December, Friday that India will host 2018 Women's World Boxing Championships and 2021 Senior Men's World Championships.
"Our boxers need more international exposure and more international tournaments need to be held in India. From now on, we will try to hold at least one high-quality international boxing tournament in India every year," he told media.
"We need to ensure that the best boxers from the top boxing nations come and compete in India. This will help to improve our infrastructure," Rathore continued.
The 47-year-old Rathore further added, "We recently held the Youth Women's World Championships and it was perhaps the best World Championships ever organised."
The former professional shooter, who achieved silver in 2004 Olympic Games at Athens, praised the Indian junior women's boxing team for their performance at the junior world championship and said national boxers have the potential to shine at the Olympic platform.
Rathore was speaking at a function organised to felicitate the Indian women's squad, which registered a tally of five gold and two bronze medals at the Youth Women's World Championships in Guwahati last month.
He also mentioned that willpower and dedication in training is the main mantra of sporting success. Rathore asked the young boxers that whatever the results would be, they must keep doing their own work.
"It seems that the women boxers have more prospects of winning medals at the international level. So we will try to give them the best facilities and best coaches," he said.
"Earlier we used to think that only we in India have problems while foreign athletes have all the facilities. This is a fallacy. Everybody in this world has their share of what they have and don't have."
"It is willpower that wins an tournament or a match. Just having financial resources and facilities is no guarantee of sporting success. Look at the list of medal winners in Olympics and see how many corporate heads, kings and queens you can spot. The list is full of people from middle class families," Rathore further added.
"What makes you win is your ability to pursue your passion absolutely undeterred. You have to live your passion and keep working hard irrespective of whether you win medals or not," he concluded.
In terms of boxing, India has some unforgettable stars, who proved their selves in world-class platforms. One name from the men's boxing world is Vijender Singh, who made history in 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, as he became the first ever Olympic medalist in boxing from the country and the other one is Mary Kom.
The 35-year-old Kom won bronze in 2012 London Olympic Games. She is a five-time World Amateur Boxing champion and the only woman boxer to achieve a medal in each one of the six world championships. Kom became an inspirational figure for all the woman boxers from India.
(Inputs from IANS)
