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Services boxer Duryodhan Singh Negi has not been troubled in the ring so far at the Senior Boxing nationals. On Monday in Guwahati, he breezed into the welterweight (69kg) finals and assured himself of a silver medal with a comfortable unanimous decision against Prayag Chauhan of Delhi.Assam hasnt always been this welcoming for Negi. On the night of December 22 eight years ago, things were far less pleasant. Back then, Negi wasnt in a brightly lit air-conditioned boxing hall, but in the chilly Eastern Garo foothills under a near-moonless night. Negi wasnt skipping around the canvas in ring shoes, but stepping as silently as he could through dense jungle terrain in army combat boots. Instead of boxing gloves, he had a loaded AK-47 rifle in his hands.Negi was part of a unit of 4th Kumaon that was conducting a patrol in Assams Goalpara district. They were on the lookout for members of the terrorist organization ULFA. Negi remembers they had been on alert for nearly three days. We were sleeping in the open while others kept watch, he says. I remember how cold it was and that I had had perhaps one hour of sleep in that time. Our eyes were red and we were very tired. But we got a word from an informer that the terrorists were nearby, so we kept going.Negi remembers the moment his commanding officer saw a flashlight -- by his estimate 30-40 metres away. There was no reason for it to be there, he says. When we heard a Kalashnikov being cocked, we knew had found them.Negi describes the ambush his team set up. Two of our soldiers flanked them and fired from their sides, he says. I had to provide suppressive fire from the front. There was a major firefight for about an hour. I couldnt see anything but since we knew they were above us in the mountain, I just kept firing into where we first saw the torch.The next morning, the troops recovered the bodies of two militants and captured another who was injured.Negi shrugs at the tale. Thats what you had to do if you were a sipahi (soldier), he says.Indeed thats what Negi was. Unlike the other members of the Services team, he didnt join the armed forces under the sports quota but rather as a regular jawan.Most of the boxers from the services team are boys who we brought in through the sports quota. For a jawan to rise through the ranks and reach this level in the nationals is incredibly hard. it is just raw talent,?Brigadier Murali Raja, former president of the Indian boxing federation, said about Negi.The eldest son of a farmer in Uttarakhands Pithoragarh district, Negi enlisted in the army in 2004, when he was 19. He had no knowledge of boxing then. Im from a poor family, he says. I joined the army to escape poverty. Sports was never a priority for us.Negis first encounter with the ring was far from pleasant. In 2006, when his unit was stationed in Solan, Himachal Pradesh, Negi was told to box in an inter-battalion tournament. They didnt give me the option of saying no, he says. They told me it was an order. I was very scared. There was a temple near the boxing ring and I remember praying there: God, dont let someone break my nose or put my eye out.Negis nose wasnt fractured and after one month of basic coaching, he was selected to fight the inter-battalion tournament, which he won. Everyone else was even worse than I was, he jokes. The tournament would be the last bit of training for Negi for four years as he followed his unit to Assam.There was no time to box, he says. We would be constantly following up information from our sources and then patrolling or setting up ambushes. Most of the time, we wouldnt get anything but every once in a while we engaged the enemy.It was only in 2010 -- when 4th Kumaon were posted out of Assam to Nagrota in Jammu & Kashmir -- that Negi got a chance to resume his hitherto brief fling with boxing. As someone who was believed to have boxing experience owing to his stint four years before, Negi was picked up by his unit and told to prepare for the army nationals. Despite no practice of any discernable standard, Negi kept winning. He eventually picked up a silver medal, losing to a boxer who had joined the army under the sports quota.The result was enough for him to be chosen to train at the Army Sports Institute in Pune. And at the ripe old age of 27, Negi began his career as a full-time boxer.He couldnt have chosen a worse time. The Indian Amateur Boxing Federation would be banned the very same year. Negi would continue to practice in Pune but had few opportunities to show his abilities. He would make the most of his chances. At the 2014 boxing nationals in Nagpur -- which were subsequently termed unsanctioned -- Negi won the gold in the light welterweight (64kg) division. He subsequently participated in the 2015 Presidents Cup in Indonesia, where he lost in the quarterfinals.Negi isnt the most skillful boxer and, at 171 cm, doesnt have the best reach. But observers say he more than makes up for these shortcomings with his high work rate. While his conditioning during his time in the army certainly helped, Negi credits his endurance to his growing up in the Himalayan mountains around Pithoragarh.Having assured himself of a silver medal at the senior boxing nationals, Negi will be part of the national camp once more. Theres no doubt in his mind that boxing is far easier than soldiering.Its a lot easier to be a boxer than to be an army jawan, he says. You can take risks in boxing. You can let yourself be open up to punches if you think that you have a chance to hit back as well. But when you are on a mission, you dont want to put yourself in danger. Negis experience in combat has also made him something of a hero among the other members of the camp as well as his teammates in the Services team. Nearly all of them [with the exception of heavyweight Satish Kumar] have joined the army through the sports quota, he says. Many of them have never even fired a gun. So they keep asking me to tell them stories of my time as a soldier.Boxing has benefitted him too, letting him rise through the ranks faster than he would have as an enlisted man. By winning the nationals in 2014, I was given a promotion to havildar (sergeant), he says. That would have taken me 15 years, but I got the promotion in 11 years.And while he is grateful for the chance to box, Negi admits he sometimes misses his life as an infantryman. I still speak to the soldiers from my unit, he says. They tell me stories about their missions and I miss the excitement of it.For the moment though, Negi says his goal is to break out in the welterweight division. It wont be easy. At 31, Negi is easily among the older active boxers in India. Yet he is confident he can make it -- if not for himself, then for the honour of his unit.Fourth Kumaon has a lot of firsts, he says. [Major Somnath Sharma of] our unit won the first Param Vir Chakra. We were also the first to capture Siachin Glacier [Operation Meghdoot in 1984] and we did it without any specialized equipment. Now I want to make the unit proud through my boxing. If I win a medal at the Commonwealth or Asian Games, that will also be a big achievement for them. Air Max 90 Leather Iron Bronze . After taking two big hits this week -- losing at home and dropping back-to-back games for the first time all season -- Indiana struck back by playing its most complete game of the year. Cheap Air Max 90 Essential . Jim Rutherford, President and General Manager of the Carolina Hurricanes, announced Wednesday that the team would assign Swedish forward Elias Lindholm to his nations team for the upcoming tournament. http://www.outletairmax90cheap.com/outlet-air-max-90-ultra-cheap.html . LOUIS -- St. Cheap Air Max 90 Mens .Y. -- Jayna Hefford scored the winning goal Friday as Canada survived a scare with a 4-3 win over Sweden at the Four Nations womens hockey tournament. Air Max 90 China Wholesale .1 million pounds ($61.2 million) on Saturday, giving the beleaguered English Premier League champions a major lift.JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- A bearded and much skinnier Oscar Pistorius was "overcome with emotion" as he pulled on his carbon fiber running blades for his first track training since the killing of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, his agent says. With a short beard and a blue hooded Nike sports top, the lean-looking double-amputee Olympian did some light jogging at his first formal session in around five months on Thursday. He then described his return to a regular track routine for the first time since he fatally shot Steenkamp at his home on Feb. 14 as "bittersweet" to his agent, Peet van Zyl. "It was a very emotional experience for him to put the blades back on, to walk back onto the track, get the smell of the track," Van Zyl, who went to the track at the University of Pretoria with Pistorius, told The AP on Friday. "It was tough for him. He said to me it was like a bittersweet feeling and emotion for him to be back on the track." Pistorius return to training was seen in a brief video clip released by his family. In the footage, which is around two minutes long, the athlete is first sitting on a chair at his usual training track at the university pulling on his running blades. He then does some light jogging on the sunbathed track and, finally, wipes his face with both hands as he walks off the track, hinting at the emotion Van Zyl described. Pistorius was charged with premeditated murder for Steenkamps Valentines Day shooting death. He denies murder and says he shot his girlfriend accidentally, believing she was an intruder in his house. Pistorius next court appearance is Aug. 19, when prosecutors may indict him and a date could be set for the start of his murder trial, possibly in September or October. He faces a life sentence with a minimum of 25 years in prison if he is convicted by a judge of premeditated murder. There is no trial by jury in South Africa. South African police said the investigation into Pistorius shooting of Steenkamp was "at an advanced stage," but declined to give further details, saying they "cannot be drawn into discussing the merits of the case." Prosecutors have said police will conclude their investigations by August and continue to probe the circumstances of Pistorius pre-dawn killing of Steenkamp, whom he shot multiple times through a toilet cubicle door. In thee last few months, the 26-year-old Pistorius has lost weight -- about 10-12 kilograms -- and spends much of his time doing household chores at the Pretoria home of his uncle as he awaits his murder trial, Van Zyl said.dddddddddddd Pistorius looked much leaner in the video footage than he was at the London Olympics and Paralympics last year. Pistorius telephoned Van Zyl and his coach, Ampie Louw, about a week ago to say he was ready to train again. "(He) said, Guys I think Im ready to resume training," Van Zyl said. Van Zyl and Pistorius family, who also released a statement along with the footage, said Pistorius return to regular training was to help his own mental process ahead of a likely lengthy murder trial, and he was still not planning on competing anytime in 2013. "His focus at this time remains entirely on the court case," the Pistorius family said. "His family and those close to him have encouraged him to spend a few hours a week on the track to assist him in finding the necessary mental and emotional equilibrium to process his trauma and prepare for the trial." Thursdays visit was the second time Pistorius has been seen on the university track since he killed Steenkamp. A March sighting spurred speculation he was back in training, which was denied by his family, who described him then as being in "an extremely traumatized state" and not willing to contemplate training at that time. Then, Pistorius was photographed by a schoolgirl on a cellphone while he was walking on the track, but he made that visit without the knowledge of anyone else, his agent said, and waited for a group of athletes he took to the track to leave before he put on his blades and just walked around. His new routine will involve around three to four sessions a week and be run by Louw, Pistorius longtime coach and the man who introduced him to athletics when Pistorius was a teenager and still at school. Van Zyl said Pistorius had discovered he was desperately missing running and training. "I think the emotions yesterday show how much he really did miss being back on the track and being able to run," Van Zyl said. "Obviously with the world championships, both Paralympic world championships and IAAF world championships getting closer, its even tougher for him not be running or training or competing." ' ' '