Indian boxers eye strong finish at season-ending World Boxing Cup Finals
Greater Noida (PTI): Indian boxers will look to end the season on a high while also targeting valuable ranking points when they step into the ring at the World Boxing Cup Finals beginning here on Sunday.
With World Boxing taking over as the international governing body of the sport, it introduced the World Boxing Cup series earlier this year, culminating in the Finals.
Boxers earn ranking points across all major tournaments, which plays a role in determining the seedings.
With the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games scheduled next year, these points become critical.
As per the format, medallists from the three World Boxing Cups held earlier this year, along with top-ranked pugilists, qualify for the Finals.
However, as hosts, India has been granted entries in all 20 weight categories across men and women.
Two-time world champion Nikhat Zareen (51kg) headlines the women's squad. The Telangana boxer, whose only international outing this year was a quarterfinal finish at the World Championships, will look to regain rhythm.
Reigning world champions Jaismine Lamboria (57kg) and Minakshi Hooda (48kg), along with world medallist Pooja Rani (80kg) and Nupur Sheoran (+80kg), will aim to maintain their strong form.
Preeti Pawar (54kg) and Arundhati Chaudhary (70kg) return to the national fold, as does Parveen Hooda (60kg), who had been suspended for failing to report her whereabouts, and all will hope to make an impact against a fairly strong field.
On the men's side, India endured a disappointing World Championships campaign, and hopes will be on the talented Abhinash Jamwal and Hitesh Gulia, who reached two World Cup finals earlier this year, to stand on the podium.
With the World Championships concluding as recently as September, several top names have skipped the season-ending event, which will begin from the quarterfinal stage.
Nonetheless, around 130 boxers from 18 countries, including a few Olympic medallists will compete in the tournament at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik stadium.
World Championships silver medallist, Sewonrets Okazawa (M70kg), of Japan and gold medallist, Huang Hsiao-Wen, from Chinese Taipei, will be chasing further success in the women's 54kg.
They will be joined Poland's 80kg+ World champion Agata Kaczmarska, who will compete at 80kg and Paris Olympics silver medallist Munarbek Seiitbek Uulu (M60kg) of Kyrgyzstan.
The competition will feature 10 weight classes for both men and women.
Squad:
Women: Minakshi (48kg), Nikhat Zareen (51kg), Preeti Pawar (54kg), Jaismine Lamboria (57kg), Parveen Hooda (60kg), Neeraj Phogat (65kg), Arundhati Chaudhary (70kg), Saweety (75kg), Pooja Rani (80kg), Nupur Sheoran (+80kg)
Men: Jadumani Singh (50kg), Pawan Bartwal (55kg), Sachin Siwach (60kg), Abhinash Jamwal (65kg), Hitesh Gulia (70kg), Sumit Kundu (75kg), Ankush Phogat (80kg), Jugnoo (85kg), Naveen Kumar (90kg), Narender (+90kg).
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Jai Bhim: Slogan that energised Dalits was first given at this central Maharashtra village
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (PTI): 'Jai Bhim': These two words have come to symbolise the awakening and empowerment of the Dalit community in independent India, but not many people know how it originated.
The slogan, which also encapsulates the immense reverence in which Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is held, was first raised at the Makranpur Parishad, a conference organised at Makranpur village in Kannad teshil of today's Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district in Maharashtra.
Ambedkar, the chief architect of India's Constitution, died on December 6, 1956.
Bhausaheb More, the first president of the Scheduled Castes Federation of Marathwada, organised the first Makranpur Parishad on December 30, 1938.
Dr Ambedkar spoke at the conference and asked the people not to support the princely state of Hyderabad under which much of central Maharashtra then fell, said Assistant Commissioner of Police Pravin More, Bhausaheb's son.
"When Bhausaheb stood up to speak, he said every community has its own deity and they greet each other using the name of that deity. Dr Ambedkar showed us the path of progress, and he is like God to us. So henceforth, we should say 'Jai Bhim' while meeting each other. The people responded enthusiastically. A resolution accepting 'Jai Bhim' as the community's slogan was also passed," More told PTI.
"My father came in contact with Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar in his early years. Bhausaheb was aware of the atrocities the Nizam state committed on Dalits. He told Ambedkar about these atrocities, including the pressure to convert. Dr Ambedkar was strongly against these atrocities, and he decided to attend the 1938 conference," he said.
As Ambedkar was against the princely states, he was banned from giving speeches in the Hyderabad state but was allowed to travel through its territories. The Shivna river formed the border between Hyderabad and British India. Makranpur was chosen as the venue for the first conference because it was on the banks of Shivna but lay in the British territory, ACP More said.
The stage made of bricks, from where Dr Ambedkar addressed the conference, still stands. The conference is organised on December 30 every year to carry forward Ambedkar's thought, and the tradition was not discontinued even in 1972 when Maharashtra experienced one of the worst droughts in it history.
"My grandmother pledged her jewellery for the conference expenses. People from Khandesh, Vidarbha and Marathwada attended it. Despite a ban imposed by the Nizam's police, Ambedkar's followers crossed the river to attend the event," said ACP More.
"This is the 87th year of Makranpur Parishad. We have deliberately retained the venue as it helps spread Ambedkar's thought in rural areas," he added.
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