Shiva Thapa Beats World Boxing Champion to Win Gold at Belgrade

17 year old boxing sensation Shiva Thapa, supported by Olympic Gold Quest, created a massive flutter in the boxing world when he defeated World No.2 and World Amateur Boxing Champion Delakliev Detelin of Bulgaria to win Gold at the Belgrade Winner Tournament. Thapa, who won a silver medal at the National Games earlier this year, won the gold in 56Kg Bantamweight category. What is even more creditable is that the Belgrade tournament was Thapa’s first international tournament at senior level.

“This is a dream come true for me to win a Gold medal in my first senior international competition. I’m very grateful to the IBF, to my family and also especially to Olympic Gold Quest for their fabulous support”, said an elated Thapa. Former Indian Hockey Captain and COO of OGQ Viren Rasquinha praised the young boxer, “Shiva has all the ingredients to become a world class boxer. His attitude and work ethic is excellent. OGQ is very proud to support him.”

Shiva Thapa had won a silver medal at the World Junior Championships as well as at the Youth Olympics last year. Olympic Gold Quest provides him with world class boxing kit, physiotherapy and nutrition and administrative support.

OGQ wishes Shiva Thapa all the best and we hope that he brings many more laurels to the country.

About OGQOGQ is a program of the Foundation for Promotion of Sports and Games, which is committed to bridging the gap between the best athletes in India and the best athletes in the world. OGQ’s mission is to help Indian athletes win Olympic Gold medals.

OGQ’s Board of Directors are Geet Sethi (8 times Billiards World Champion, Padma Shri, Khel Ratna Awardee), Prakash Padukone (All England Badminton Champion, Padma Shri, Arjuna Awardee), Vishwanathan Anand (4 time Chess World Champion, Padma Vibhushan, Khel Ratna Awardee), Leander Paes (12 time Grand Slam Champion, Padma Shri, Khel Ratna Awardee), Niraj Bajaj (4 time National Table Tennis Champion, Arjuna Awardee, Director, Bajaj Group), Shitin Desai (Executive Vice Chairman, DSP Merrill Lynch), R. Ramaraj (Senior Advisor, Sequoia Capital), Rakesh Khanna (Founding Partner, Ambit RSM), Neeraj Bharadwaj (Managing Director, Accel Partners and Deepika Padukone (Acclaimed Indian Actress). Viren Rasquinha (Former Indian Hockey Captain, Olympian and Arjuna Awardee) is the Chief Operating Officer of the foundation.

OGQ has identified 6 priority sports where India has a genuine chance of Olympic medals viz. Shooting, Badminton, Boxing, Athletics, Wrestling and Archery. We have a vision of supporting the training of 100 athletes by the 2016 Olympics in Rio. OGQ currently supports 23 sportspersons and some of the prominent ones are 5 time World Boxing Champion M.C. Mary Kom, Badminton World No. 3 Saina Nehwal, 10m Air Rifle World Record holder and first Indian shooter to qualify for London 2012 Olympics, Gagan Narang, Tejaswini Sawant, 2010 Shooting World Champion in 50m Prone and the P.T. Usha School of Athletics.