Asian Games: India's Boxing Heroes Look to Punch their Way to Glory
Young sensation Shiva Thapa would kick start India's bid when he takes on Parada Helo Leonel of the small country Timor Leste in the men's 56kg weight class, a bout that the Asian champion of 2013 should win comfortably.
India start their Asian Games campaign in boxing on Wednesday as the boxers aim to match or better the record of four years ago when they managed an impressive tally of nine medals, including two gold.
India had finished second in the table behind hosts China, who won 10 medals, including five gold.
Young sensation Shiva Thapa would kick start India's bid when he takes on Parada Helo Leonel of the small country Timor Leste in the men's 56kg weight class, a bout that the Asian champion of 2013 should win comfortably.
Senior boxer Akhil Kumar, on a comeback trail, then takes on Nepal's L Purna Bahadur in the 60kg class. The seasoned Indian pugilist had finished 5th in the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.
The policeman has come with a mission, to win the gold medal here and will be up against another policeman from the Himalayan kingdom.
In 2010, India bagged two gold medals through Vikash Krishan (60kg) and Vijender Singh (75kg), who will not fight in these Games, 3 silver medals (V Santosh Kumar - 64kg, Dinesh Kumar - 81kg and Manpreet Singh - 91kg, all in men's division.
Bronze medal winning efforts came from Suranjoy Singh (52kg), Paramjeet Samota (plus 91kg), in the men's section, and M C Mary Kom (51kg) and Kavita Goyat (75kg), in the women's.
Olympic bronze medalist Mary Kom is also in the squad for these Games.
L Devendro Singh has drawn Kuwait's A Fahad as his first round opponent in the men's 49 kg class while Manoj Kumar's first bout would be against Japan's K Masatsugu, in the 64 kg class and both bouts are slated for September 25.
On Friday, the heavy weight boxers in the team - Kuldeep Singh and Amritpreet Singh - would take on Thaiand's T Anavat and South Korea's N Park in the round of 16 bouts in men's 81 and 91kg classes.
The women start their bouts on Saturday with Mary Kom taking on Korea's Kim Yeji in the 51 kg class followed by her teammates Laishram Sarita Devi (women's 60 kg) and Pooja Rani (75kg) will step into the ring later on the same day along with men boxers Gaurav Bidhuri (52 kg) and Mandeep Jangra (69 kg).
Bidhuri has drawn Prem Chaudhary of Nepal as his round of 16 rival while Jangra will be up against Liu Wei of China in another round of 16 contest.