Olympic-bound boxer Manish Kaushik sparring at home with his brother

NEW DELHI: "World Championship medal to aa gya bhai ji, abb Olympics medal lana hai (World Championships medal has been won, it’s time to win an Olympic medal", boxer Manish Kaushik told Timesofindia.com as he headed for his regular training on the rooftop of his house. He ties his shoe laces, dons his gloves and starts punching the boxing bag.
“I have taken it one step at a time in my career.I targeted World Championships medal, I won it and it’s time to bring an Olympic medal for my country,” he said.
Bhiwani, where Manish hails from, became a boxing-crazy village after star boxer Vijender Singh’s 2008 Beijing Olympics bronze medal. He is the only male boxer to have won an Olympic medal. Mary Kom is the lone Indian female boxer to achieve the feat.
“I idolise Vijender bhaia and started boxing because of him. I was a kid and was studying in eighth standard when he won the Olympic medal. I was adamant and requested my father to let me choose boxing as a career. He refused in the beginning because he wanted me to concentrate on academics, but he was also the one who supported me a lot. I owe my career to my father,” Kaushik said.
“When I won the World Championships medal, he (Vijender) congratulated me saying 'Mubarak ho chhorey. Olympics medal lana hai abb' (Congratulations boy, it’s time to bring an Olympic medal,” Kaushik recalled.

India has so far won six World Championships medals in men’s boxing. Vijender (2009), Vikas Krishan (2011), Shiva Thapa (2015), Gaurav Bidhuri (2017), Amit Panghal (2019) and Manish (2019) are the ones who have won medals at the mega event. Apart from Panghal’s silver medal, the other five have won bronze medals.
Amid the lockdown due to the coronavirus, as all boxers train without their coaches and trainers, Kaushik is lucky to have a sparring partner – his younger brother Sahil, who is also a national-level boxer. Manish feels the Tokyo Olympics postponement has given him more time to prepare for the mega event.

“I am lucky to have my younger brother. Due to the lockdown, most of the boxers are training alone and do not have a sparring partner. But my younger brother Sahil is helping me a lot. He gets up early in the morning with me and trains with me. He is a sparring partner for me. It is really good that he is a boxer too otherwise things would have been a little difficult for me (laughs),” the 24-year-old told TimesofIndia.com.
“Olympics will happen next year now and we have a year in hand. We have more time now to prepare ourselves for the Olympics. Apart from training, I watch motivational videos. I also watch my own old boxing videos to prepare for the Olympics,” he said.

Kaushik, who is a Subedar in the Indian Army, has also urged his fellow Indian citizens to remain at home and stay safe.
“I am obeying all the rules during the lockdown. I am staying at home. I request everyone please don’t go out unless it is very urgent. With the help of Timesofindia.com, I want to request everyone to please stay at home, stay safe, so that we can get rid of this virus as soon as possible,” Kaushik signed off.