The Hindu : Sport : Varghese and Harpreet in semifinals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 22, 2006

Sport

Sport

Varghese and Harpreet in semifinals

Good day for Indian shuttlers, paddlers

— PHOTO: AP

Varghese Johnson ... impressive at the boxing ring.

Melbourne: Varghese Johnson and Harpreet Singh ensured two boxing medals for India, outpunching their rivals to storm into the semifinals of the plus-91 super heavyweight and 91kg heavyweight categories respectively in the Commonwealth Games here on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old Varghese and Harpreet, who is two years older than him, were in a mean mood and their opponents had to run for cover. In both bouts, the referee had to stop the contest.

Varghese plundered Michel Patrick Camille of Seychelles before the bout was stopped in the third round. Camille was simply not equipped to face the Indian and had a harrowing seven-minute stay in the ring during which he suffered heavy punishment.

Harpreet, too, had no trouble against Fiji's Tawaka Cagiloaloa. The tall Indian thrashed Cagiloaloa so badly that the referee had to stop the contest midway through the third round. Harpreet takes on Anderson Emmanuel Fitzgerald of Barbados in the semifinals on Thursday.

Ajay loses

Ajay Kumar, however, lost to Kenya's Ndere Makonjio 10-18 in the quarterfinals of 81kg light heavyweight section. The Indian put up some fight only in the second round.

Meanwhile, the Indian shuttlers, fresh from the bronze medal win, began the open event with facile victories.

National champion Anup Sridhar made it a no contest against Burty Molia of Fiji, winning the first round match in just 17 minutes. The tall and lanky Anup thrashed Molia 21-7, 21-1.

In the women's section, Saina Nehwal demolished Karen Kune Foo of Mauritius 21-6, 21-3 in an encounter that lasted barely 13 minutes.

Saina proved too good for Karen. The Indian led 6-4, before reeling off 11 points on the trot to make it 17-4. She won the game in just six minutes.

In the second, Saina toyed again with her rival who could garner only three points, as the Hyderabad girl wrapped the game spending a minute more than her first game.

Aparna made to fight

Olympian Aparna Popat, however, had to wage a grim battle to put it across Scotland's Y. Wemyss. She survived a scare in the first game before winning it.

Wemyss fought well in the second game too and Aparna had to use all her experience to ward off the challenge. The Scot refused to give up and even took the lead on a couple of occasions, but conceded several negative points for the 28-year-old Indian to capitalise. Aparna won 21-18, 21-17.

The other Indian to make it to the next round was Trupti Murgunde, who took only 14 minutes to dispose of Bahamas's Slesha Shakeria Waithe.

It was a one-sided match and Trupti conceded only 13 points, clinching the match 21-4, 21-9.

In the first game, Trupti led 7-1, made it 14-3 and then closed out the game losing just one more point.

In the second game, the Indian was ahead 10-0 but allowed her rival nine points before finishing it off in style.

Mixed luck in doubles

There was mixed luck for India in doubles. Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas lost to the higher-ranked Malaysian duo of Tan Fook Choong and Chong Hann Wong 21-12, 21-17. In the 28-minute battle, the Indians fought well in the second game but could not get past their fancied rivals.

Rupesh and Thomas made too many errors in the first game and though they improved in the second, it was too late.

However, the Chetan Anand-V. Diju combine beat the Pakistan duo of Wajid Ali Choudhary and Zeeshan Umer 21-12, 21-7 in 16 minutes. The Pakistan players found Chetan and Diju too hot to handle and caved in without a fight.

In women's doubles, Saina and Trupti warded off a spirited challenge from the Jamaican pair of Jekyll Saunders and Dawn Lewis 21-15, 21-6. The Indians took 13 minutes to win the first game, but just nine more to clinch the issue.

The Indian paddlers too made a resounding start with seven of the eight players winning their qualifying rounds. The lone casualty was K. Shamini who went down 3-4 to Nigeria's Ganiyat Ogundele in a tightly fought seven-game match.

The other women players, Nandita Saha, Mouma Das, Poulomi Ghatak and Kasturi Chakraborty, along with their men compatriots Subhajit Saha, Soumyadeep Roy and Shibaji Dutta chalked out contrasting victories on their way to the second round. — Agencies

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