Manoj Kumar : I want to make it big in amateur boxing by winning medals at Asia and Olympics

Manoj Kumar : I want to make it big in amateur boxing by winning medals at Asia and Olympics

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Manoj Kumar has played down the talks of him becoming a professional boxer as he asserted that his aim is to win the medals at Asiad and Olympics by continuing being an amateur boxer. He has also expressed his happiness on Santiago Nieva’s methods of making the Indian boxers rectify their flaws.

As the Gold Coast CWG is around the corner many athletes are working on the final preparations that would help them to perform well in the upcoming Games. The 2010 CWG Gold Medalist, Manoj Kumar has been preparing for the CWG at the national camp in Patiala under coach SR Singh and high-performance director Santiago Nieva. The Indian pugilist is confident of winning a medal in the upcoming Games and also said that he would still love to continue at winning medals at the amateur level.

“I want to make it big in amateur boxing by winning medals at the Asiad and Olympics,” said Kumar on being asked about his plans on turning a pro in future.

The 2010 Gold CWG gold medalist also won gold at the 2016 South Asian Games. The 31-year-old also has three bronze medals to his name that he won at the 2013 and 2017 Asian Championships along and also at the 2009 Czech Grand Prix. After a dismal display in the 2014 Glasgow CWG, Manoj Kumar is confident of winning a medal at the Gold Coast Games as he has been working on his technique as a final preparation.

“The preparation is on right track. I have been working on fine-tuning my technique, especially the attack part. My foot movement is now faster which can help me cancel an opponent’s move as quickly as possible. “The boxing team will leave early for Gold Coast to acclimatise to the conditions. I will look to better my quarterfinal appearance at the Glasgow CWG. I am confident of securing a medal this time,” Said the 31-year-old reported TOI.

Manoj Kumar expressed his confidence in Argentina’s Santiago Nieva training methods that have helped him and his fellow pugilists a lot in improving their game.

“It has never been done before where a coach records your training and shows you the bouts umpteen times until you rectify that particular flaw in your game. There has been a video analyst attached to the team, but this precision was missing where every small little detail was minutely observed. “Nieva would tell that he has learned a lot watching videos and he is passing on that experience to us. He has created a Whatsapp group of boxers where sends videos daily of different boxing fights and then follows it up with us whether we have watched them or not,” concluded the veteran Indian Pugilist.

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