Hawa Singh

Infobox person
name = Hawa Singh
birth_date = birth date|1937|12|16
death_date = Death date|2000|8|14
birth_place = Umarwas, Haryana, India
death_place = Bhiwani, Haryana, India
nationality = Indian flagicon|India
citizenship = Indian
occupation = Boxer Heavyweight

Captain Hawa Singh (Dec 16, 1937 in Umarwas, Haryana - Aug 14, 2000, in Bhiwani, Haryana ) was an Indian Heavyweight boxer, who dominated Indian and Asian amateur boxing for a decade in his weight class. He won the Asian Games gold medal in Heavyweight category in consecutive editions of the games in the 1966 Asiad and the 1970 Asiad both held in Bangkok, Thailand - a feat unmatched by any Indian boxer to date (August, 2008). He won the National Championships in the Heavyweight category a record 11 consecutive times - from 1961 to 1972. He is best remembered today for being the founder of the Bhiwani Boxing Club (BBC) which came to the limelight in 2008 in India for producing 4 out of 5 boxers of the Indian boxing contingent to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, including the olympic medallist Vijender Kumar.

=Brief Biography [ [http://www.iloveindia.com/sports/boxing/indian-boxers/hawa-singh.html Biography of Hawa Singh] ] [ [http://sportal.nic.in/legenddetails.asp?sno=591&moduleid=&maincatid=8&subid=0&comid=55 India's highest sporting awards and those who won them, SS Gandhi, The Defence Review] ] =

Hawa Singh was born in rural Haryana in 1937. He enrolled in the Indian Army in 1956, and became the champion of the "Western Command" in 1960 by defeating defending champion "Mohabbat Singh". He won the National Championships for 11 straight years from 1961 to 1972, winning gold medals at the 1966 Asian Games and the 1970 Asian Games in Bangkok. He was awarded the Arjuna Award, India's highest sporting award, in 1966.

After retiring, he took up coaching and was the co-founder of the Bhiwani Boxing Club [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7482661.stm Against the Odds: Vijender Kumar, BBC] ] which produced a slew of Indian boxers in the 1990s and 2000s, including Olympic medallist Vijender Kumar. He was awarded the Dronacharya Award in 1999.

He died suddenly in Bhiwani on Aug 14, 2000 - 15 days before he was to have received the Dronacharya Award. He was survived by his wife "Anguri Devi" and son Sanjay Kumar, who was also a boxer for India and won the Asian Junior Championships in Bangkok.

References