Chhote Lal keen to make the most of rare chance

In a category which sees the presence of Beijing Olympics quarter-finalist Akhil Kumar and Asian Games bronze medallist Jeetinder Kumar,Chhote Lal Yadavs name is not very prominent. But for the 24-year-old boxer,whose career has seen him making switches from running to boxing and from feather-weight to bantam-weight,the upcoming AIBA 3-Star Boxing Tournament in China is an opportunity to make a strong case for his inclusion in the Indian team for the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. With Jeetinder pulling out of the April 3-11 event due to an ear injury and Asian silver medallist Nanao Singh also withdrawing,Yadav will lead the challenge of the six-member Indian team.

One of the toughest things has been the introduction of the new weight categories. That has merged four light-weight categories into three and my weight category feather-weight has been suspended. But we are seeing it as an opportunity, said the boxer from Varanasi.

Yadavs journey in boxing started by chance as he was selected by Mumbai-based Bombay Engineering Groups Boys Sports Company as an athlete for their Pune training camp. Yadav was a ten-year-old at that time and it was only at the insistence of a team coach that he tried his hand at boxing.

A gold in the Asian Cadet Championship in 2004 was followed by a Junior Asian gold two years later,and when he won a silver at the Czech Grand Prix in 2007,comparisons with feather-weight veterans like AL Lakra began. My father works in the Railways and I would run on empty tracks in the morning. He then got me enrolled me in the academy and it was there that I chose boxing, says Yadav.