How Manish Kaushik battled injury to bag Tokyo Olympics quota

It was not an easy journey for Manish Kaushik to earn himself a Tokyo Olympics berth. Competing in the 63kg quarterfinal of Asian Boxing Olympic qualifiers in Jordan, Amman, the Indian pugilist was handed a 2-3 defeat by Mongolian boxer Chinrozig Baatarsukh. He was the same opponent the Bhiwani boxer had beaten at the World Championships in 2018. But his hopes of earning a Tokyo berth was not over. “I could not perform the way I wanted to. I was quite upset. But I had one more chance, so I proved myself in it,” Kaushik told Hindustan Times in an exclusive telephonic chat from Jordan.

Up next in the 63kg box-off bout against him was the reigning Commonwealth gold medallist from Australia, Harrison Garside. Manish had lost to Garside at CWG 2018 final. This was his moment to extract revenge. But the competition was not an easy one. In the first round itself, Garside caught Manish in his right elbow and the Indian was in pain.

“After the first round, he came and sat down and showed me his bicep muscle, and there was swelling. He told me he was in a lot of pain,” coach CA Kuttappa said.

It was not a bad round from Manish, overall. He remained away from his opponent and targeted him with long punches. He was declared the winner in the first round. But an injury could turn things around from thereon. Coach Kuttappa thought of a strategy.

“We told him, ‘you cannot give up’. We did a lot of icing, and compressed it. We told him he has to win it at any cost. He will not get another shot like this for the next four years. He said ‘I will give my 100 per cent’,” the coach said.

He further explained the tactics: “We told him to feint a right hand to confuse Garside, but go with left punches instead, which we recognise as Manish’s strength. We told him that he has to get at least one more round to win the bout.”

Manish implemented a similar strategy in the 2nd round, and it paid off. He managed to win the second round, leaving a large margin for his opponent to cover up in the final round. He was declared the winner of the bout after a feisty third round, becoming the 9th Indian boxer to earn a quota at the Asian Olympic Qualifiers in Jordan. With this, India surpassed its highest quota tally in boxing of 8 which they had achieved in 2012 at the London Olympics.

“When you get a tough opponent, it increases your confidence if you win against them. He is a Commonwealth Games gold medalist. I had lost to him in 2018. So, now by beating him, I have taken my revenge,” Manish said.

Manish’s heavy left hooks left Garside bleeding. But a punch right in the rib cage in the final round which Manish suffered also gave him a reminder of areas he needs to work on before the Tokyo Olympics.

“Changing weight category has not affected my speed. But since I am coming from a lower weight category (60kg), I lack strength in my punches. So, I am going to keep my focus on improving the same,” Manish said.

Coach Kuttappa further explained that Manish has inculcated new combination of punches in his arsenal, which helped him in the box-off bout. “Manish lacked combination of punches before. He only went with one or two punches at max, not more. So, we told him to go forward with a combination of three-four punches at least, which he performed really well this time around,” he said.

But the Dronacharya award-winning coach pointed out the areas the Indian boxer needs to improve on in the next four months before flying off to Tokyo.

“We are working on improving Manish’s strength and combination of punches. We also have to work on him to improve his game when he goes inside. He is really good when he is working on long punches. But when he goes inside, he goes too close, and he becomes still, and does not hit punches. We have to train him to fight during closed-out meeting range,” he said.