e foreign-born players picked to play for the Brazilian team by Croat coach R

?Competing in his first senior nationals, Deepak Singh beat Olympic quarterfinalist Devendro Singh by unanimous decision to claim the 52kg contest.As the first officially-sanctioned boxing national championships to be held in nearly four years, the boxing nationals in Guwahati were expected to bring hitherto unknown talent to light. On Tuesday, it was the turn of 20-year-old Deepak Singh of Chandigarh to make his presence felt.?Deepak went on to win the title of best boxer of the tournament. It was a remarkable show for a boxer who has never been part of the national camp at any level and whose only previous appearance at a nationals - in the 2012 juniors - ended with a finish outside the medal brackets.Deepak was himself surprised by the result, which was only the second gold by a boxer from Chandigarh. I had practiced hard so I was expecting to do well. But I was not expecting to win the best boxer award, said Deepak, who had previously won gold at the 2015 Inter University Championships.There was slight pressure on me because the bout was against Devendro but I was confident about the hard work I had put in my training. I started boxing as a 12-year-old and this is my first national championships.Devendro had an off dayWhile there was no doubting Deepaks dominance on the day, it must be said that Devendro was far from his best. The Manipuri is still recovering from an ankle injury and had moved up a weight category as well. I will see what went wrong in the bout and will work on my weaknesses. I am not particularly happy with my fitness levels, as of now its not even 80 percent. But I will bounce back, I am not the one to get bogged down by setbacks, said Devendro, who added that he would stay in the flyweight division.Devendros loss may have been the upset of the day but there was another surprise, in the mens 49kg division. Former Asian Youth bronze medalist K Shyamkumar was beaten by Haryanas Amit. I made a few mistakes in the opening round, which probably cost me. Still I thought I should have won the bout, said the Andhra Pradesh boxer.Other resultsThere were also results that went according to plan. Two-time Olympian and local favourite Shiva Thapa, who had injured his forehead during the quarterfinal bout, outpunched Ankush Dahiya 5-0 in the lightweight (60kg) division. Two-time bronze medallist at the Asian Championships, Manoj, representing the Railway Sports Promotion Board, defeated Duryodhan Singh Negi of the Services Sports Control Board by split decision 4-1 in the welterweight (69kg) final bout.Air Max 98 2018 .com) - The game was all punts and field goals before Kodi Whitfields catch. Air Max 98 Qs Thunder Blue . -- The Portland Timbers and Real Salt Lake played to a 0-0 tie Saturday night that left the top of the Western Conference standings unchanged. http://www.nikeoffwhite.it/nike-air-max-97.html .Y. -- Sabres defenceman Tyler Myers had no intention of changing his hard-hitting style before taking part in a disciplinary hearing for his illegal check to New Jersey forward Dainius Zubrus head. Nike Air Max 90 Off White . As he recorded his 23rd and 24th points of the evening, a segment of the sellout Air Canada Centre crowd expressed their appreciation for the Raptors point guard with a smattering of MVP chants. Nike Off White 2018 . -- For the first time in two months, an opponent was standing up to Alabama.SAO PAULO -- Rugby player Isadora Cerullo never lived in Brazil. Fencer Ghislain Perrier speaks very little Portuguese. Golfer Miriam Nagl played abroad most of her life.Theyll still be parading under the host nations flag at the opening ceremony of the Rio de Janeiro Games come Aug. 5.Cerullo, Perrier and Nagl are among several athletes who will be fulfilling their Olympic dream because of Brazils shortage of athletes in sports it automatically qualified for as host. Without an Olympic tradition to fall back on, the country was left to rapidly recruit an international band of athletes for events such as field hockey, golf, rowing, wrestling and rugby.Their ties, in many cases, are weak. Some have lived away for most of their lives but were born in Brazil. Some were born abroad but have Brazilian parents or grandparents. Some had almost no links to the country but were hired by local federations and became naturalized.I would have very slim chances of participating in the Olympics if I hadnt made the switch to play for Brazil, said Nagl, a Brazilian-born golfer who left the country when she was 8 years old and had always played for Germany. When this idea came up and I realized that I had a chance to make it to Rio, I started dreaming about being at the Maracana Stadium during the opening ceremony.The 35-year-old Nagl, who plays in the Ladies European Tour and is No. 445 in the womens world rankings, said she hadnt given much thought about representing her native country until being contacted by golf officials after Rio was awarded the games.By making the switch, I gave myself a chance to be in the Olympics, but I also thought about how this could be good for Brazil, about how I could become a good ambassador and help the game develop, she said.Brazil had only two foreign athletes in its delegation at the 2012 London Games -- American basketball player Larry Taylor and Chinese table-tennis player Gui Lin. Now about 20 international athletes will be taking advantage of the many extra spots available for the home nation in Rio.Rugby is one of the sports in which Brazil lacks tradition but will compete anyway. Hoping to put on a good show in front of the home fans, the local federation launched a worldwide campaign -- entitled Brazilian Rugby Players Wanted -- to attract athletes playing abroad.A few who responded to the campaign will be in Rio, including American-born Cerullo, who has Brazilian parents but had never visited the country until after contacting Brazilian rugby officials. Two Brazilian brothers who lived in France also made it to the team, as well a Brazilian-born athlete who lived and played in Argentina. England-born Juliano Fiori and France-born Laurent Bourda-Couhet, who haas a Brazilian mother, will also play.ddddddddddddBrazils fencing team earned eight additional spots as hosts and included three international players for the games. Among them are Ghislain Perrier, who was born in Brazil but left the country as a baby after being adopted by a French family, and Italian-born Nathalie Moellhausen, who competed for Italy at the 2012 London Games but chose to be with the hosts in Rio to fulfill the wish of her Brazilian grandmother.I dont have many connections to Brazil, admitted Perrier, who has lived and trained in France most of his life. I spent vacation in Brazil a few times, but I know only a few people there.The fencing team will also have Marta Baeza, who was born in Brazil but had been competing for Spain, and reserve team member Katherine Miller, who was born in the United States.Another foreigner, Hungarys Emese Takacs, tried to make the team but she was dropped after her citizenship was contested in court by a Brazilian athlete who had been left out of the squad. Takacs was accused of faking her marriage in Brazil to become naturalized.She had the legal documents but we always suspected it was a fraud, the Brazilian who had lost her spot, Amanda Simeao, told local media. She was married to a Brazilian but had a boyfriend in Hungary.Takacs denied wrongdoing but lost her battles in court.Another controversial case was water polo goalkeeper Slobodan Soro, a Serbian whose naturalization process was approved just before the games. He and center Josip Vrlic of Croatia were hired to play for Brazil despite not having direct connections to the country. They were among five foreign-born players picked to play for the Brazilian team by Croat coach Ratko Rudic, the gold medalist with Croatia at the London Games.The others were Spains Adria Delgado, who has a Brazilian father; Italian-born Paulo Salemi, son of a Brazilian mother; and Cuban Ives Gonzalez, who is married to a Brazilian. The team also has Brazilian-born Felipe Perrone, who used to play for the Spanish national team before joining the hosts for the Rio Games.They have been playing for Brazilian clubs for some time, this is not something that just happened, said Ricardo Cabral, who is in charge of Brazils water polo team. We created an Olympic project to help the sport develop and make Brazil more competitive. Because of the Olympics in Rio, there is more investment available and we want to take advantage of that to give the sport more visibility.---Tales Azzoni on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tazzoni . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/tales-azzoni ' ' '