Teen boxer who wants to fly

New Delhi, March 18

“I’m targeting a gold medal. Nobody cares about other medals anymore!” says Bhiwani’s Naman Tanwar, the youngest member of India’s boxing squad for next month’s Commonwealth Games.
Big words, especially as they come from a teenager who had not heard of the Commonwealth Games until around two-and-a-half years ago.
Tanwar, 19, became serious about the sport for a peculiar reason — he wanted to travel by air to a foreign country and see how people lived there. But the Bhiwani boy got hooked to boxing once he started to train regularly, which he started for weight management and fitness.
Tanwar, India’s entry in the 91kg category for CWG, showed he’s ready for the international stage when he beat Asian silver medallist Sumit Sangwan to earn a place in the team for the Commonwealth Games.
“I was fascinated about the idea of flying,” said Tanwar, whose father is a retired Armyman who was once part of President’s Bodyguard regiment. “When I started, I hadn’t travelled by air… So the idea of doing it was a big motivation. I also wanted to go abroad and see how others lived their lives.”
There was another, more powerful, attraction that made Tanwar very serious about boxing.
“When I came into the national camp, I used to see my seniors in training gear that had ‘India’ embossed on it,” he said. “I wanted to wear that too but you just can’t wear an India jersey. You have to be an international boxer to be able to wear it. It has to be earned. I wanted the India jersey very badly. So I decided to put the hard yards in training. And here I am!”
Started in St Petersburg

He flew out of India for the first time when he was selected to represent the country in the 2016 AIBA Youth Championships, in which he won a bronze medal. That performance is very dear to him because it caught the eye of national coaches.
“That tour was very important to me as my journey began from there. And it was because of that bronze medal that I got a chance to join the senior camp,” he recalled. “I have fond memories of that tour.” Last year, Tanwar won a gold medal and was declared the best boxer at the Galym Zharylgapov Tournament in Karaganda, Kazakhstan.
Due to flying and representing the country, 2018 will be the second consecutive year in which Tanwar will miss his Class XII exams.
“I will miss the exams again. I got admission in a school which supports sportspersons, but because of tours I have to miss the exams,” he said.
This was bound to happen as training and sparring took precedence over studies as he began to excel in boxing.
“I started boxing for fitness, and I wasn’t interested in continuing with it. But with time I started to lose interest in studies and became more serious about boxing,” said Tanwar, who sees reigning Olympics light-heavyweight champion Julio César La Cruz of Cuba and Olympian Akhil Kumar as his heroes.
He’s just started flying, and he hopes to soar high like them.