Indian boxers will improve ‘medals tally’ at Asiad
new delhi — Praising his fellow boxers for their performance at the recently concluded Commonwealth Games, star pugilist and gold medal winner Vikas Krishan Yadav asserted that the Indian squad will improve their medal haul at the Asian Games later this year.
India picked up nine boxing medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, earlier this month. All the eight Indian boxers in the men’s categories finished on the podium while five-time world champion M.C. Mary Kom won gold in the women’s 48 kg division.
Vikas was confident that Indian boxers will put up a much better
There is no comparison between the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games Vikas Krishan Yadav
show at this year’s Asian Games than the 2014 edition, although he admitted that the standard will be much tougher than the Commonwealth Games.
“There is no comparison between the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. The Asiad is like a mini Olympics. Countries like Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Philippines, Mongolia, China and former Soviet nations like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are among the stronger nations in world boxing. The Asian Games is going to be much tougher. We will not get such easy competition like the Commonwealth Games,” Vikas told IANS.
“But still we should improve our medal haul at the Asian Games, including at least one gold. Last time we got just two medals when Satish and I got bronzes in our respective categories. This time we should get four to five medals,” he added.
However, the 26-year-old felt that with all eight Indian boxers among the men reaching the semifinals of their respective categories, the number of gold medals should have been higher. —