Olympic bronze medallists — boxer Vijender Kumar and wrestler Sushil Kumar — at a felicitation ceremony in Calcutta on Monday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: Olympic bronze-medallist boxer Vijender Kumar believes that boxing will emerge as a major sport in India within the next five years.

According to the 23-year old pugilist, who was in the city for a felicitation ceremony, boxing which is basically a sport of the middle-class people in our country, will soon take over other sports and prove its supremacy.

“I feel boxing will emerge as a major sport within the next five years, Vijender told The Telegraph on Monday.

“Though I feel boxing is a middle-class game in India things are already looking brighter after our success at the Beijing Olympics,” he added.

On being asked about the impact of his bronze-winning feat on the growth of the sport, the pugilist from Bhiwani said: “The implications are already showing. Wherever I went after returning from Beijing, I found that people are much more keen about the game.

“I feel boxers now have realised that they can also win it…,” Vijender said.

Talking about India’s superiority in boxing in the sub-continent, Vijender said that it’s a clear advantage for the boxers in India.

“We are obviously superior than boxers in Pakistan, Sri Lanka. And if we can guide our talent pool properly then we can surely have world class boxers,” he added.

Focussed on his sole aim of bagging gold at the London Olympics, Vijender stressed on working out on his mistakes which knocked him out of the 75kg category semi-final bout against Kazakhstan’s Bakhtiyar Artayev.

“I am working on those mistakes now. Next time you will not find them. I will participate in the 2010 Commonwealth Games and then the 2012 London Games… And I want to win gold,” he pointed out.

Meanwhile, bronze medal list wrestler Sushil Kumar said that winning a medal for the country was a wonderful feeling. “It was a fantastic feeling ... It was the product of my hard work and the disciplined life I led… Thanks to my coach Satpal Singh,” Sushil said.

According to Sushil, the future of wrestling looks very bright. “Talent was always there. Now after the bronze win the infrastructure is bound to improve,” he said.