Asian Games will be much tougher than CWG: Vikas

Praising his fellow boxers for their performance at the recently concluded Commonwealth Games, where India picked up nine boxing medals at the 2018 Games in Gold Coast, Australia, earlier this month, Vikas said the country is poised for revolutionary growth in the sport.

All the eight Indian boxers in the men’s categories finished on the podium while five-time world champion MC Mary Kom won gold in the women’s 48 kg division.

Vikas was confident that Indian boxers will put up a much better show at this year’s Asian Games than the 2014 edition, although he admitted that the standard will be much tougher than the Commonwealth Games.

“There is no comparison between the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. The Asiad is like a mini Olympics. Countries like Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Philippines, Mongolia, China and former Soviet nations like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are among the stronger nations in world boxing. The Asian Games is going to be much tougher. We will not get such easy competition like the Commonwealth Games,” Vikas said.

“But still we should improve our medal haul at the Asian Games, including at least one gold. Last time we got just two medals when Satish and I got bronzes in our respective categories. This time we should get four to five medals,” he added.