New Delhi: India's women pugilists are a stronger bet for an Olympic medal than their male counterparts and should be prioritised in the overall planning for the 2028 Los Angeles Games, says boxer-turned-police officer Akhil Kumar, lauding their record-shattering Commonwealth Games performance.In a telephonic interview to PTI, Akhil, who was the only Indian boxer to strike gold at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, said he was quite impressed with the country's performance in Glasgow where it finished with its best ever tally of seven gold medals in boxing, six of them coming from women.Read more: India shines beyond traditional strengths at CWGWomen's boxing came into the CWG only in 2014 and featured just three categories -- 51kg, 60kg and 75kg -- to start with. This was two years after it entered the Olympics programme in the same three divisions. M C Mary Kom (2012, London) and Lovlina Borgohain (2021, Tokyo) have won Olympic medals for India in women's boxing."They (the women boxers) are clearly delivering better results. The weight categories are also increasing, they deserver to be prioritised? Among the current crop of male boxers, I don't really think there is anyone who can be an Olympic medallist at this stage. If there is a drastic improvement going forward, which I hope there is, I will change my view," the Haryana Police ACP said.Read more: Seven golds, three silvers: India's boxing contingent punches its way to best-ever Commonwealth Games performance"At this point, it's the women boxers who have the advantage. We have adapted to the expansion of the sport quite well and given how it has grown, I guess India is better positioned to deliver more than one Olympic medal in women's boxing in 2028," he added.The CWG programme in Glasgow featured seven weight categories for women, one more than last time. The men's event also comprised seven categories, achieving gender parity for the first time.The weight divisions were also the ones that would be at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The Indian women won medals in all seven categories, six gold and a silver. The men, on the other hand, managed two gold, and a silver.The competition in the women's event featured 70 boxers from 43 countries, 11 more than previous edition's 59 participants from 55 countries. The male competition, however, shrank to 131 from 43 countries instead of 172 from 55 nations in 2022.Asked to name the boxers who stood out during the competition, the former Asian champion and Olympic quarterfinalist said the gold-winning duo of Jaismine Lamboria (57kg) and Sakshi Chaudhary (51kg) displayed an all-round game which was also fairly gutsy. Among the men, he saw potential in Jadumani Singh (55kg), who was a silver-medallist."I have been talking about how good Jaismine is for a very long time, so I am not surprised that she has won gold, also Sakshi was a revelation. In Jadumani, I see raw speed, right amount of power and he knows how to keep his distance. Very confident southpaw and has potential," he said."But we should remember that at the Asian Games, all these 'Stans' (Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan most notably) will come into the equation along with Japan and Korea. Let's see how we respond to that challenge," he noted. Need heroes Medals are regularly coming in for Indian boxing but Akhil believes the sport is in desperate need of heroes who can connect and inspire the next generation.The sport was galvanised significantly by India's historic 2008 Beijing Olympics performance where Vijender Singh won a path-breaking bronze, while Akhil defeated the then world number one enroute to the quarterfinals in a gutsy display. It eventually tapered off due to several factors in the next decade."All sports need performance but in addition they also need heroes, who can inspire the masses. When youngsters see an athlete's struggle, discipline and hard work, they get inspired. I believe boxing doesn't have that kind of stories right now which feel organic like it was with Vijender or me," he noted."Take for instance Neeraj Chopra, now he is a hero because his conduct and performance are both top notch. He embodies the very best of an athlete. Manu Bhaker, look at the way she has addressed the youth of this country in past few days, it's inspiring. Can we say Indian boxing has any such hero who can connect? Not right now, I think," he added. Trials only fair way Touching upon the controversy around the the seeding-based system of selection in Indian boxing, Akhil said the concept is "rubbish and is perhaps designed by someone who has never achieved anything in the ring."Trials were conducted to select the teams for CWG after Sports Authority of India's intervention after the seeding based-system, that relies on subjective metrics such as training performance, including punctuality, was denounced as ambiguous by both SAI and Sports Ministry."Boxing is about fighting three rounds of three minutes. Beyond that, who can run faster or what time they show up at training means absolutely nothing. Those metrics should come into play only if a trial throws up a tied result."If you have two boxers of same calibre then evaluate who is more disciplined or more worthy but if there is a hands down better fighter then nothing else should matter," he said.