Vijender is my inspiration

Balwinder Singh Beniwal was only 12,when Vijender Singh won his first international medal a gold at the 2003 Afro Asian Games.

Balwinder Singh Beniwal was only 12,when Vijender Singh won his first international medal a gold at the 2003 Afro Asian Games. Beniwal,who is Vijenders first cousin,was barred from watching bouts on television as his parents feared that the youngster would take up boxing as a career.

A few visits to Bhiwani Boxing Club and his dogged insistence meant that Beniwal got enrolled in the academy and five years later,he now finds himself in the Indian team for the Commonwealth championship.

All changed when Viju bhai won the gold in the Afro-Asian games. He was a junior boxer and had won his place in the trials. Then I decided to get enrolled. The desire was always there but the medal made things easy for me. We all needed somebody to look upon and once we got that,nobody stopped us from being boxers, the 19-year-old,who will be competing in the welterweight (69 kg) category,said.

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Like Vijender,Beniwal too had a successful start in the junior circuit and his major achievement came when he won the silver medal at the Junior Asian Championship in Vietnam in 2006. The same year,he won a bronze at the Invitational Boxing Tournament in Cuba.

The experience in Cuba helped me a lot to understand the club culture there. I was competing in the 36 kg to 49 kg weight categories at that time and the trip gave me a chance to work on my basics, he added.

Apart from being cousins,they are occasional sparring partners as well. On Wednesday,they had a long discussion about footwork. You have to be quick on your feet, was the latest advice from Vijender.

We almost share the same weight category. When he is on a weight losing regime,he comes close to 69 kg and mostly our tactics are same. Sometimes when I am short of a sparring partner,and if he is free he will readily spend some time with me, he said.