My coach should have been nominated for Dronacharya Award, feels Amit Panghal

Amit Panghal recently bagged a gold medal at the Asian Boxing Championships and the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) has nominated his name for this year’s Arjuna Award as well. Apart from Panghal, Gaurav Bhiduri has also been recommended for the Arjuna Award while Indian boxing coaches Sandhya Gurung and Shiv Singh have been nominated for the Dronacharya Award.

However, Panghal is now disappointed with his coach’s name missing from the list of Dronacharya Award nominees and he feels that his coach Anil Kumar should have been recommended for the award this year.

"I feel my coach should have been recommended for the award. Last time also he (Anil) was ignored and even this time. This is unfair. Someone other names have been recommended and these people carry less points than my coach," the boxer told IANS.

Gurung and Shiv Singh have got vast experience behind them as far as coaching is concerned. Sandhya is with the Indian women boxers for around 10 years while Shiv has coached for the last 30 years with the experience of coaching Indian male and female pugilists. Panghal, on the other hand, has said that he has trained under Anil since the start of his career and mentioned that his coach was ignored again.

"I have trained under Anil Sir since my career began and it was under his guidance that I bagged a number of medals. There are two ways of giving the Dronacharya award. Firstly, depending on the performance of the coach and secondly, based on the achievement of his disciple. I have been performing very well so far and credit goes to my coach. Based on my performance, my coach has enough points but like last year, he was ignored again," the 2018 Asian Games gold medallist said.

"My coach is not getting the respect he deserves," Panghal added.