Jai Bhagwan headed to a market close to his house within the village Dahana in Haryana to purchase sweets. His 21-year previous daughter, the boxer Nitu Ghanghas, had simply assured India of not less than a bronze medal on the Commonwealth Games. As quickly as Nitu received the bout with Northern Ireland’s Nicole Clyde by a technical choice within the quarter-finals of the ladies’s 48 kg class, Jai Bhagwan had left house.
He is dealing with a division enquiry over his common absence from the job of invoice messenger in Haryana Vidhan Sabha in Chandigarh, and hasn’t obtained his wage for the previous few years however a CWG medal needed to be celebrated.
“Hamara ghar toh Nitu hi chalati hai, main to bus uske India ke liye medal jeetne ke dream ko support karta hun. (Our home is run by Nitu. I only support her dream of winning medals for India),” he tells The Indian Express. “To see her win in any competition is like doing my job and that’s why I took so many leaves from my work to be with her and support her. Even though I could not be in Birmingham to see her, our prayers are with her and we know she will return with the gold medal,” says an emotional Jai Bhagwan. It’s been fairly a journey for the daddy and daughter.
🗣️ #CWG2022 sure @NituGhanghas333 talks about her father’s immeasurable sacrifices to assist her fulfill her desires and extra on this interview forward of the @birminghamcg22.
Read @IndianExpress‘ full article right here 🗞️👇@Nitinsharma631#PunchMeinHaiDum 2.0#B2022#Boxing pic.twitter.com/tr4oVnvMCL
— Boxing Federation (@BFI_official) July 19, 2022
Nitu Ghanghas clearly remembers her first 20km bus journey from village Dhanana to the Bhiwani Boxing Club to coach underneath coach Jagdish Singh, alongside fellow boxer Sakshi Choudhary and her father. It was a June night of 2012 and she or he’d end her first two hour-long coaching session to be met by her father, who stood ready exterior the academy.
“Boxing ne mere ko chuna (Boxing chose me). My father wanted me to be a boxer since that’s the only sport famous in Bhiwani and that’s why he took me to train under Jagdish coach sir. We’d all heard about how tough a coach Jagdish sir was. There was no relaxation for us in the first training session too. At that time, like any child, I thought about quitting but then seeing my father wait outside made me believe that I can do anything,” remembers Nitu, who might be India’s wager for a medal within the ladies’s 48kg occasion on the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
While Nitu and Sakshi would begin a strict teaching routine at BBC, which included two and half hours of coaching within the morning as properly within the night aside from attending faculty, it could additionally imply the beginning of an ordeal for Jai Bhagwan. Bhagwan, who works as a invoice messenger on the Haryana Vidhan Sabha in Chandigarh, needed to decide on becoming a member of his job commonly or accompanying his daughter to coaching each day.
Nitu being eldest of his three kids, Bhagwan would first juggle his days between Chandigarh and Bhiwani earlier than deciding about giving up on his job. “When I first went to the academy, I saw more than 100 boxers training there. I knew at that time that I had to be with my daughter to support her training all the time if I wanted to see her win a medal for the country,” he remembers.
Having educated the likes of 2008 Beijing bronze medallist Vijender Singh and lots of extra, coach Jagdish was recognized to be a tough taskmaster. Having began coaching ladies too on the academy, the coach would make Nitu and Sakshi practice with boys as properly, aside from sparring classes with taller boxers.
“As a coach, we are always on the lookout for boxers who stand out in the crowd. When Nitu came to train, I was impressed by her natural ability to box as a southpaw and that’s what I wanted her to see as her strength. At that time, since the federation was suspended, there was a lack of tournaments. So I made them train with older boys and Nitu had this accuracy in straight punches, which made her excel in those sparring sessions. One thing, which still helps her a lot, is that she is a very introverted boxer. She would win a bout and ask me “Ab kya practice karenge, sir,” says Jagdish.
While Sakshi received medals on the state stage as soon as tournaments resumed, Nitu usually bowed out early in state tournaments. It additionally meant that Jai Bhagwan needed to resolve about taking go away with out pay to spend time with Nitu and continually encourage her. A pelvic harm in 2015 meant that the father-daughter duo needed to spend greater than a month for therapy at a Delhi hospital and that’s when Bhagwan determined to promote the household’s automobile and in addition took some mortgage from family and mates to assist the household. “My husband did not tell me initially about him taking leave without pay. He would ask his relatives or friends for money to run the house expenses and I got to know about it much later. The first thing I would say was that my husband has become paagal in his dream to make Nitu achieve something for the country. But it’s his paagalpan and Nitu’s willpower which made my daughter win,” shares Nitu’s mom Mukesh Devi.
A bronze in 2016 youth nationals would imply that the teenager could be chosen for the nationwide camp for the 2017 World Youth Championship and the next years would see the teenager grow to be the world youth champion at Guwahati in 2017 aside from defending the title at Budapest the subsequent yr. The Haryana teenager would additionally add an Asian Youth title to her kitty the identical yr earlier than a shoulder and wrist harm in 2019 would lead to her lacking the nationals.
With the then Haryana authorities delaying giving the world youth championship money awards on account of an arbitrary change in coverage, the household had but once more to financial institution upon their financial savings. “Making it to the national camp meant that my father did not have to worry about my training or diet needs. But then he would stay in a rented accommodation in Bhopal just to motivate me. When I became the world youth champion in Guwahati, he was there to see me win and would show my medal to the entire village. When the cash awards got delayed, the only thing he told me was not to worry about anything,” says Nitu.
Having missed the possibility to compete on the 2020 nationals on account of shoulder harm, Ritu needed to spend time at her village as her title was not included within the senior camp. It additionally meant that she together with Sakshi, one other world youth champion, spent an prolonged time underneath Jagdish to coach. “It was also a time for her to make the transition from youth to senior and staying at home in a way helped her. She relies heavily on her counter punches apart from uppercut and right uppercut. As her shoulder recovered, we made her box against much stronger and swifter boxers and it helped her speed,” says Jagdish.
Last yr, Nitu grew to become the nationwide champion within the 48kg class with a win and this yr has seen her profitable her first senior worldwide medal, a gold medal on the Strandja Memorial Tournament. In the world championships at Turkey, the teenager reached quarter-finals earlier than a 2:3 loss towards A Balkibekova of Kazakhstan, a loss she phrases a lesson. “I would term Nitu as a boxer with one of the sharpest minds in the ring. She understands ring situations and knows when to take advantage of her being a southpaw and a long range boxer. Had she not fallen ill a day before the quarters bout in the world championship, she could have won gold in Turkey,” says Bhaskar Chandra Bhatt, Indian ladies’s chief coach.
Post the world championship, Nitu would seal her spot for Birmingham with a win over 2019 World Championship silver medallist Manju Rani within the closing within the CWG trials at Delhi, which additionally noticed her profitable the semi-finals by RSCI (referee stops contest on account of harm) towards six-time world champion and London Olympic bronze medallist Mary Kom as Kom suffered a knee harm within the second spherical.
With Kom turning 40 this November and never eligible to compete in any event submit that, Nitu rues the possibility to attain a win over her idol in a full bout. “My favourite punch is cross right and I have watched videos of Mary didi a thousand times master this punch. Whenever I am free, I see Mary didi’s bout and like any other boxer, it was my dream to score a win over her. Unfortunately she got injured. To get her shabhaashi after my win would have been worth any medal in my life,” says Nitu.
The final two years have seen Nitu additionally supporting the training of her youthful sister aside from serving to the household bear bills of her youthful brother, an aspiring shooter. Jai Bhagwan, who’s these days dealing with a division enquiry over his common absence from the job in Chandigarh, phrases his daughter because the one, who runs the home.
“The cash rewards have meant that her sister’s full fee and expenses of first year of MBBS in Shimla are taken care of apart from the training expenses of her younger brother. She recently got him a new pistol worth Rs 1.5 lakh. When we ask her, what will she get for herself, she tells us that she will get a medal for herself and the country,” says Bhagwan.
As for Nitu, she is aware of the place to position the medal as soon as she wins it in Birmingham. “At our village home, my father has hung a punching pad in our living room. Whoever comes to our home is shown the punching pad by my father and that’s where he would put the medal once I win it,” says Nitu.