Newly-appointed high performance director Bernard Dunne says the upcoming Asian Championship will be an opportunity for Indian boxers to show they have the potential to compete at the Paris Olympics.
After a successful campaign at the Commonwealth Games, Indian pugilists will turn up for the Asian Boxing Championship starting in Jordan later this week.
“I am expecting a good performance, expecting to control what we can do, what’s their ability. It’s not about medals, it’s about an opportunity for athletes to put up their hands and say you need to looking my direction, I want to go to Paris 2024," Dunne told PTI.
“So it’s an opportunity for them. I am looking for performances to see how our team is up for it, how we prepare for competitions," he added.
The 42-year-old Dunne was appointed Boxing Federation of India high performance director earlier this month. He takes over the role left vacant by Santiago Nieva.
The Irish boxing legend said being part of camps earlier with Indian boxers played a part in taking up the job.
“We had several camps with each other. They came to my country on many occasions, we trained together in Germany, USA. I built knowledge around Indian athletes and coaches."
“I like what I saw and that is why I took up this job," he said.
Talking about the initial assessment of the Indian boxers, he said, “Everyone has been extremely hard working, they are very talented and driven, they want to give what all they have to maximise performance."
“There’s a lot of ingredients there and it’s just about making sure that they are mixed together."
Dunne has set short and long term goals for himself and the boxers.
“I have set some goals, from a personal perspective as well as from athlete perspective. Obviously Paris Olympics is a priority for me and making sure my athletes have the exposure, right balance, identifying the right competitions, etc."
Indian boxers have often faltered at the Olympics but Dunne, a renowned name in the world of boxing, believes the focus should be on controlling things in one’s hands first and the medal will follow.
“I hear this all the time form a negative perspective. That you faltered. Olympic medals are not easily won. My focus is not the Olympic medals. Ultimately I want to win them, that is the goal.
“My focus is it to do the things we can control — preparing the right way, recovering, understanding our strengths.
“All these things elevate the level of the performance and because this a very tight group of people so when they get those 1-2-3-4 percentage improvement in any of these aspects then it’s huge improvement."
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