“I feel weak during the third round” - Amit Panghal on effects of weight loss hopes to use Tokyo experience in Paris Olympics 2024

He was one of the favorites for a podium finish at the previous Olympic Games in Tokyo. Having failed to meet those expectations, India's star boxer Amit Panghal is determined to make amends at the Paris Olympics 2024.

The Haryana boxer had gone into the Tokyo Olympics as the World No. 1 in the men's 52kg weight category. He was considered to be one of the strong medal contenders in the Indian contingent.

However, a 1-4 defeat against the Rio Olympics silver medalist Yuberjen Martínez of Colombia saw him crash in the second round.

Pamghal focused on learning from past mistakes and improving in future

The shock of crashing out of the Tokyo Olympics without a medal was followed by a period of struggle and resultant depression during which he fell out of favor with the then-national coach and spent a couple of years out of the Indian squad.

Following his comeback to the national setup, Panghal has confirmed his ticket to Paris at the final Olympic qualifier in Thailand and is determined to make amends for his failure in Tokyo.

"I would like to learn from my mistakes in the last Olympics and the qualifiers. I would like to improve my stamina and iron out some of the technical faults in combination punches," Amit Panghal told a select bunch of invited reporters at a press meet organized by SAI in collaboration with the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the Boxing Federation of India (BFI).

"My endurance is a bit weak. I am experiencing problems with my stamina after cutting down on my weight for competition. As a result, I feel tired during the third round," he added.

"Also, currently I use one-two punches during combination punching. I am trying to increase that to 3-4 punches."

After being dropped from the national squad, Panghal approached former India coach and Sports Authority of India's (SAI) high-performance Coach BI Fernandez for guidance.

"He trains us an extremely smart manner. I had a good experience while training under his guidance which helped me during the Olympic qualifiers," Panghal informed.

Lower ranking, lower expectation

Unlike the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Panghal is going into the Paris Olympics as a much lower-ranked boxer. According to the Indian Army JCO, this means much lower pressure of expectations which will help him perform more freely.

"I will be a lot more relaxed compared to Tokyo. I have a lot of international experience after playing in big tournaments such as the Olympics, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. I know the boxing styles of all my major opponents and how to tackle them. The ones I do not know yet, I am preparing for them as well," he asserted.

'Hard luck' during Olympic qualifiers

Indian boxers have struggled to qualify for the Paris Olympics with only two among the men - Nishant and Amit Panghal - managing to book their tickets to the quadrennial extravaganza in the French capital.

Panghal, however, insisted that the Indian boxers had adequate preparation and were unlucky during closely fought bouts during the Olympic qualifiers.

"Training was good. Some of the bouts were extremely close calls and could have gone either way. It was hard luck that we were unable to win those bouts and secure more quotas," the 28-year-old from Rohtak said.

"We had good training sessions and excellent foreign training stints. We lost out in close bouts," he added.

Home sweet home

Unlike many other Indian athletes preparing for the Olympics 2024, Panghal does not want to train abroad but instead prefers high-altitude training in India.

"I face a lot of problems with my diet during competition or training stints abroad. I am in a lower-weight category. I do not need a lot of food but my diet must be proper and adequate," the 2019 World Championships silver medalist said.

"I faced a lot of diet-related problems during the last Olympics as I was sparring with boxers who had already qualified but I did not get proper food in Tokyo. I want to avoid those issues during the Paris Olympics and that is why I want to train in India," he added.

"We have very good coaches in India and excellent sparring partners are also available. We can do better training in India than in foreign countries."

Panghal asserted that he prefers to train at the high-altitude boxing academy in Shilaroo, Himachal Pradesh, in the run-up to the Paris Olympics.

"I want to do high altitude training in India.