Shiva Thapa strikes gold at Asian Championships

PTI, NEW DELHI, July 8, 2013: Teen sensation Shiva Thapa (56kg) reaffirmed his status as the rising star of Indian boxing as he became the youngest pugilist from the country to clinch a gold medal at the Asian Championships in Amman, Jordan on Monday.

India rounded off the campaign with a gold, two silver and a bronze.

The silver medals came through L. Devendro Singh (49kg) and Mandeep Jangra (69kg), while the bronze was bagged by Manoj Kumar (64kg).

The 19-year-old from Assam, defeated home favourite Obada Alkabeh on a split decision of 2-1 after fighting out a tactically superior bout.

“Shiva fought an excellent bout. He applied his brain and dominated all three rounds. The decision may have been split but he was clearly the better boxer among the two,” national coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu told PTI.

But it was disappointment for another rising star Devendro Singh (49kg), who went down fighting to Kazakhstan’s Temertas Zhussupov. Devendro lost on a split decision of 1-2.

Mandeep also ended up on the losing side after putting up a gallant fight to settle for silver. He lost to Daniyar Yeleussinov of Kazakhstan.

Thapa belongs to the Indian Gorkha community.He trains at Pune-based Army Sports Institute and is supported by Anglian Medal Hunt Company and Olympic Gold Quest, a not-for-profit foundation to identify and support Indian athletes. Shiva Thapa has qualified for 2012 London Olympics, and is the youngest Indian boxer to qualify for the Olympics.

Shiva Thapa was born as the youngest of six siblings born to Padam Thapa, a karate instructor in Guwahati. His father and elder brother Gobind Thapa, an Assam state-level medal winning boxer, were sources of inspiration for the young Thapa; Mike Tyson's bouts also inspired him to take the sport seriously. Padam noticed his son’s flair for boxing and made sure that his youngest son got all that he needed. Shiva rose as early as 3 a.m. in the mornings to balance his training and studies. His practice first started in the living room of their house at the age of seven. It was not easy for Padam to support for his son's training, travel and special diet because of the large family. He ensured that the monthly expenditure of 30,000 (US$520) was taken care of. Things become simple for the Thapa family when Olympic Gold Quest, a not-for-profit foundation to identify and support Indian athletes, decided to support the young boxer as a part of their Vision 2016 initiative. While signing Thapa, Viren Rasquinha, the chief operating officer of Olympic Gold Quest said:\

Shiva is an enormous talent. He must be groomed well because he has the talent, the right attitude and the hunger to succeed. OGQ has very high hopes from Shiva and I am confident that he will become one of India's top boxing stars in the near future.