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‘I am personally hurt and I take moral responsibility’
‘The luck factor was totally zero this time for us. All my boys lost to eventual medallists’
He is ready to take ‘moral responsibility’ for India's medal-less boxing campaign at the Rio Olympics, but National coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu says the four-year administrative logjam cannot escape blame for all that has gone wrong with the once flourishing sport in the country.
"I am personally hurt and I take moral responsibility for this. But I feel my boys' performance was satisfactory under the current circumstances and with the kind of tough draws they ended up getting.
"As for other things, I knew what was going on in the last four years but I continued thinking that things would improve," a disheartened Sandhu said.
Boxing became an Olympic medal-hope for India ever since Vijender Singh's historic bronze in the 2008 edition of the Games in Beijing.
M C Mary Kom added another bronze to the kitty in 2012 when women boxers made their debut in the London edition.
In Rio, at least one medal was expected from the three who made the cut. The expectation was despite the fact that boxing had hit a downward spiral following the termination of the national federation in 2012 for manipulation in elections.
"The luck factor was totally zero this time for us. All my boys lost to eventual medallists. I am not trying to save anybody but we have to be realistic. The draws were very tough," Sandhu said.
The draws were indeed hard on the Indians.
Shiva Thapa (56kg) lost to eventual gold medallist Robeisy Ramirez of Cuba in the opening round, while Manoj Kumar (64kg) also went down to gold winner Fazliddin Gaibnazarov in his pre-quarter-final bout.
Vikas Krishan (75kg), on the other hand, was defeated by eventual silver medallist Bektemir Melikuziev in the quarter-final.
Sandhu appealed to officials to wake up to the damage that has been done to the sport in four years of complete mess in administration.
Sandhu, who has been with the national team for more than two decades, said, on the upside, boxers got all the facilities they wanted to prepare for the Games but what they did not get was competitive foreign exposure.
“We need to get India back in the World Series of Boxing (WSB). We need to get back that franchise because this Olympics was dominated by the boxers who participated in WSB and the International Boxing Association's (AIBA) Professional league (APB)," he said.
India were a part of the semi-professional WSB before the administrative mess led to the franchise owners giving up on it.
"We must immediately start APB because it helps in getting seedings. Vikas got the 7th seeding in the Olympics because he had competed in a couple of APB bouts; I think it made a difference. Shiva, on the other hand, did not get a seeding even though he is world No 6 in amateur rankings," he explained.
Asked about his own future, given that he had wanted ‘rest’ after Rio, Sandhu was non-committal.
"Let's see what's in store," was his rather open-ended response.