Dingko on Boxing India selection panel

New Delhi: Former Asian Games gold-medallist Dingko Singh’s induction was the only major addition in what was otherwise a minor rejig of the Indian Boxing’s National Selection Panel to be headed by Arjuna awardee Gopal N Devang. The 10-member panel will remain in office till next year and has a few Boxing India officials and all the national coaches as additional invitees. Dingko, who faded into oblivion after his spectacular Asian Games triumph in 1998, is currently working as a coach at the Imphal centre of the Sports Authority of India (SAI). “I am looking forward to this new role, I had conveyed to federation that I wanted to take up the selector’s position as it is a step forward for me,” Dingko told PTI from Imphal. “The current set of Indian boxers are doing well internationally and I, as a selector, would try to ensure that we keep getting a good supply of talent,” he said. The mercurial former star had hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons last year when he was arrested for allegedly assaulting a woman weightlifter at the SAI center. “That matter is still in court, I don’t want to comment on it,” he said.