On The Chin, Manly

As any street-fighter would sadly testify, when a fist, propelled by muscle and weight, lands on your face or your head, it jars on you. The muscles and tissue at the point of impact undergo trauma; you experience a current zip through your body, there's a sickening feeling in the back of your head.

Boxing, which awakes in us a violent gene that's been checked by the society's need for order, doesn't have an exactly enjoyable aftermath for those in the ring.

Would you, for instance, like to go back to the ring four days after suffering a cut that required a dozen stitches to close it? That's what boxers are ready to do every day of their lives.

Jitender, 20-year-old, five-feet-three and a bundle of muscles, did just that. He had much to fight for. He'd reached the quarterfinals of the 51kg category, the second Indian boxer to do that in Beijing – and only the fourth in all Olympics. 

On the night of August 16, barely hours after he beat Tulashboy Doniyorov to reach the quarterfinals, Jitender had a very easy decision to make.

It was an easy decision to make, Jitender reiterates. "I had a chance to win a medal, and I had no hesitation at all," he says.

Immediately after the bout, he had met the media, bathed in sweat and blood, stanching the flow of blood from under his chin with his hand.

That night, he had to have that small, dangerous tear sewn up by a surgeon in a mannerthat obscured it – if it were visible, the referee would likely have disallowed him to fight, ending his medal hopes without a bout. 

Heath Matthews, the physiotherapist who doubles up as the team psychologist, then effected a remarkable recovery.

In the event, Jitender lost the quarterfinal fight to Russia's GeorgyBalakshin.

At this level, all foes are dangerous, the Russians especially so. 

Jitender was not the feisty fighter we know. He won his points, but he was a bit too cagey to win: at the back of his mind, he had the knowledge that even a glancing blow to his chin could open the wound.

The Indian boxing coaches, Cuba's B.I. Fernandez and Gurbax Singh Sandhu, were unstinting in their praise for Jitender. "He's young, his best is yet to come. He will be a strong contender four years later at London," said Fernandez. 

"He'll go much further."

At Beijing, barely an hour later, one Indian boxer did go further – Vijender Kumar reached the semifinals in the 75kg category. India's first medal in Olympics boxing was thus secured.

All those hours, days, years of struggle, the blood and sweat spilled, had paidoff for Vijender. 

Jitender's day will come too.