No one is left standing anymore. Pugilists of Tata Steel Boxing Training Centre in Jamshedpur, an affiliated unit of Jharkhand Boxing Association (JBA), have simply flattened the opposition at the 9th state championship held in Deoghar.
The boxers packed solid punches to wrest as many as 30 medals for their boxing centre to emerge overall champions at the state meet hosted by the JBA from December 15 to 17.
The Tata centre, which produced international boxers such as Olympian Deewakar Prasad and Asian champion Aruna Mishra, is now churning out a whole new generation of feisty pugilists.
Boxers across sub-junior (U-15), junior (U-19) and senior (men and women) categories won as many 20 gold, four silver and six bronze medals to stamp their authority on the state event, Urban Services and East Singhbhum district, with 22 and 17 medals respectively, behind.
The youngest lot proved to be the fiercest, winning nine gold medals in the sub-junior category. Sahil Kumar, Raja Sundi, Kishan Keshri, Rahul Mahto, Selay Soy, Suraj Soy, Madhusudan Soy, Rabinder Sah and Chando Tiyu picked gold.
The junior category bagged three gold medals, thanks to efforts of Vikas Tiwary, Abhishek Kumar Singh and Shivani Kumari.
The senior category glittered with eight gold medals, with Ujjwal Sharma, Vivek Das, Sandeep Toppo, Ravi Soy, Md Mehtab, M. Ravi Kumar, Rohit Kumar and Puja Behera proving their mettle.
Among the sub-juniors, Bobby Sundi won silver and Jay Deogam and Neelam Kumari a bronze each.
Prince Kumar Srivastava, Rajesh Mishra and Sunita Banra won silver in the junior bouts. Harpreet Singh, Abhishek Kumar and Poonam Sawaya had to be satisfied with bronze.
Jitendra Verma landed the lone bronze amid the glitter of gold in senior slot.
It's a triumph worth celebrating for the Tata boxing centre that was set up in 1995 and used to function out of Gopal Maidan initially before shifting to the JRD Tata Sports Complex.
At present, the centre boasts 115 trainees, mostly from modest backgrounds.
A delighted Charles Borromeo, head of Tata Steel sports wing and secretary of JBA, said it was great to see a new crop of boxers, including girls, doing well.
"We are working under the guidance of Anand Sen (state boxing outfit chief and Tata Steel president) and Sunil Bhaskaran (vice-president, corporate services) to make a base in the community by promoting boxing. The centre boasts the best facilities in the state with six punching bags, 10 wall pads and three rings for pugilists to sweat it out," he added.
Training centre coach Ajit Singh agreed. "We have 115 (boys and girls) registered trainees who get facilities that are found only at national camps. This is why this cradle is producing quality boxers," Singh said.
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