{"id":8531,"date":"2012-07-19T03:32:51","date_gmt":"2012-07-19T03:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indiansportsnews.co.in\/?p=8531"},"modified":"2012-07-19T03:32:51","modified_gmt":"2012-07-19T03:32:51","slug":"vijender-singh-the-journey-from-bhiwani-to-beijing-a-the-making-of-a-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indiansportsnews.co.in\/?p=8531","title":{"rendered":"Vijender Singh: The journey from Bhiwani to Beijing & the making of a champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Extremely reserved, lanky and eager to learn. That was how coach Jagdish Singh described a 14-year-old Vijender Singh Beniwal in 1999, when he came to the Bhiwani Boxing Club accompanied by elder brother Manoj, says a report in The Times Of India, <\/strong>adding that Manoj’s plan was simple – hone Vijender’s boxing skills so that he follows him into the Indian Army as a hawaldar.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike most modest families in Haryana’s hinterland, for the Beniwal duo sports was a means to land a government job. However, after his success at the junior national level, the coach convinced Vijender’s father Mahipal Singh Beniwal, a bus driver with Haryana Roadways, to give the boy a chance in professional boxing,\u201d says the report.<\/p>\n

After he created history with the bronze in Beijing which catapulted him into stardom and changed the face of boxing in the country, his composure was unbelievable. One of his closest friends and his roommate in Beijing, fellow boxer Dinesh Kumar, describes the night of the win as surreal.<\/p>\n

“We did not celebrate. There was no one to celebrate with in China. We just could not sleep, so we kept talking the whole night about what would happen next, how life would never be the same again, how we have to take care of bigger things and how we will long for the careless days of childhood,” says Dinesh, adding that he had to grow up overnight.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile a report in Mid-Day <\/strong>says that boxing came to the Beniwal family of Kaluwas with Subedar Dariyaj Singh, Vijender Singh\u2019s paternal grandfather, who had fought against the Chinese and the Pakistanis during his long stint with the Indian Army. Mahipal is Dariyaj\u2019s son, and his elder son Manoj Singh Beniwal caught the bug. Training every evening at the Vaish University boxing academy, Manoj made the nationals before joining the army. But before leaving Bhiwani, Manoj had become a hero to his younger brother Vijender, who couldn\u2019t wait to get back from school, dump his bag, and sprint after Manoj to the boxing academy.<\/p>\n

\u201cViju took part in three sub-junior tournaments, but didn\u2019t win a medal,\u201d Manoj recounts. \u201cBut by 1997, he was also starting to show signs of his boxing ability, and joined the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Centre in Bhiwani. That same year, he won the junior nationals at the age of 12.\u201d
Jagdish Singh was training youngsters at the SAI centre, the Bhiwani Boxing Club (BBC) had not yet been set up, and so Vijender shifted bag and baggage to the SAI hostel in 1999.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s where the guru-shishya combination was forged \u2014 Jagdish and Vijender. The coach had stars in his eyes already, and would go on to punch above his weight, boasting to the authorities that the first Olympic medal for India in boxing would come from one of his students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Extremely reserved, lanky and eager to learn. That was how coach Jagdish Singh described a 14-year-old Vijender Singh Beniwal in 1999, when he came to the Bhiwani Boxing Club accompanied by elder brother Manoj, says a report in The Times Of India, adding that Manoj’s plan was simple – hone Vijender’s boxing skills so that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[792,5535,5870],"class_list":["post-8531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-from-the-newspapers","tag-beijing-olympics","tag-jagdish-singh","tag-vijender-singh-beniwal"],"yoast_head":"\nVijender Singh: The journey from Bhiwani to Beijing & the making of a champion - IndianSportsNews.com - Latest Updated Sports News & Sports Blogs of Cricket, Hockey, Golf, Football, Tennis & Other Sports<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/indiansportsnews.co.in\/?p=8531\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vijender Singh: The journey from Bhiwani to Beijing & the making of a champion - IndianSportsNews.com - Latest Updated Sports News & Sports Blogs of Cricket, Hockey, Golf, Football, Tennis & Other Sports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Extremely reserved, lanky and eager to learn. 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