Boxing: Vijender’s village throws up another champion, Tamanna Beniwal

Tamanna Beniwal may have just won gold at the 2022 Asian Youth Boxing Championships, but she isn’t expecting many celebrations when she returns to her village, Kaluwas, on Wednesday. That’s because it’s hard for a boxer to stand out in Kaluwas, whose chief produce is boxers – the most famous of them being Vijender Singh, Olympic bronze winner in 2012.

“We are very proud of Tamanna but I don’t’ think there will be any function at home. Maybe something might be planned at her academy,” says her father Rajesh.

The village in Haryana has churned out multiple national coaches, scores of national level fighters and at least 17 boxers who have represented India internationally. “We are a small village but every day 100 children will travel to Bhiwani to box. There’s a boxer in every third house here,” says Rajesh.

Vijender is undoubtedly an outsized hero in this part of the country. “He’s a very big inspiration for me,” Tamanna (17) said after her win in the U-18 50kg division in Amman, Jordan on Monday. He is also Tamanna’s uncle. “Vijender’s dada (father’s father) and my dada were brothers. Vijender was a little younger to me but his elder brother Manoj and I grew up together,” says Tamanna’s father Rajesh.

Tamanna was still a toddler when Vijender returned from Beijing. “People tell me there was a big function but I don’t remember much of it.” As someone from a boxing family she was always expected to box though. “Even before she started boxing, she would exercise a lot. Vijender would always ask if she was going to box,” says Rajesh.

It was only in sixth grade when she finally decided she wanted to box though. There was nothing but support from her family. “Initially I thought it would be easy because so many people in our family were such good boxers. But I found out how difficult it was. I had to work really hard. But I have always enjoyed boxing,” she says.

Tamanna has made the most of the opportunities she’s got. She has won gold at the sub junior and youth national championships and prior to the 2022 edition in Jordan, had competed in two Asian Championships winning silver on both occasions.

While making two finals at a continental tournament might seem like an impressive performance, there are always those who hold her to a higher standard. “After I won a silver last year, he (Vijender) came to our house to congratulate me. But he said I couldn’t be happy with just a silver medal. He told me I had to target a gold medal. That really motivated me,” she says.

The fact that there’s an Olympic medalist who can guide her is something Tamanna and her family is grateful for. “He’s someone who comes to the village very frequently. He’ll think nothing of going for a run with the youngsters and give them tips on boxing. He’s obviously a big name but when you have someone like that in your family, you start thinking, ‘Even I can achieve something like what he has’,” says her cousin Vinit, who took her to her first boxing camp.

While the youngster admits she looks up to him, her coaches feel the two have many things in common. “A lot of people say she has the same mental toughness that Vijender had,” says Vinit. “She’d lost to the same opponent from Uzbekistan in the finals of the last two Asian Championships. This time she was determined that since this was her last year in the youth category, she had to win. She’s someone who will believe she can beat any opponent she faces.”

There are stylistic resemblances between the two as well. Vijender was an accurate counterpuncher who worked behind a strong jab just like the Tamanna. “She’s a very technically strong boxer. She has a very good jab. Sometimes she’ll throw two or three left hands. She also understands distance very well,” says Amanpreet Kaur, chief coach of the Indian youth team, who has worked with the youngster at the National Center of Excellence for the last four years.

Tamanna herself is looking to add a few tricks Vijender possessed though. “He had a very strong and accurate right punch. And he used it very carefully. Sometimes coaches tell me I keep throwing the left jab so I want to have that right hand punch as well.”

Tamanna’s immediate target is her class 12 exams in a couple of months and after that the national championships and perhaps even the world championships. A medal there and she might finally have done enough to get a village function to honour her. For now with an Asian Championship gold medal in her traveling bag, her hopes are a lot more modest. “It will be nice if I can have a cold coffee when I go home,” she says.