The Hindu : Sport : Three Indians in final

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 24, 2006

Sport

Sport

Three Indians in final

Aparna dethrones Li Li

Melbourne: The Indian boxers were on the verge of creating history with three of them storming into the finals of the Commonwealth Games here on Thursday. India has so far won only one gold in the Commonwealth Games boxing competition and that was achieved in 2002 at Manchester when Mohd. Ali Qamar emerged winner.

Now three Indians — Akhil Kumar (54kg), Vijender (69kg) and Harpreet Singh (91kg) — have a chance to emulate that feat and win a gold for India. Two others — Jitender Kumar (51kg) and Varghese Johnson (above 91kg) — lost their semifinal bouts and are assured of a bronze.

Harpreet was the most devastating Indian boxer in action. The 27-year-old pugilist knocked out Fitzgerald Anderson Emmanuel of Barbados in just 35 seconds. Harpreet punched Emmanuel so hard that the latter crashed on to the floor and did not get up.

Akhil, the 25-year-old National champion, registered a narrow 26-24 victory over Nigeria's Nestor Bolum in their 54kg bout. Akhil started with a flourish and led 8-5 in the first round, before the Nigerian struck back with vengeance to win the second 6-5. The Indian came up with telling blows to clinch the third round 6-5.

The Nigerian fought well in the last round, but Akhil steadied himself and won a couple of valuable points to prevail. Though Bolum took the round 8-7, it was the Indian who booked a berth in the final, where he takes on Mauritius's Bruno Richard Louis.

Vijender outpointed Neil Perkins of England 22-14 in the 69kg semifinal. The bout saw an aggressive Indian fighting a defensive Englishman. The 21-year-old Vijender proved more resourceful than his rival and, after some prodding, he opened up in the last two rounds to outpoint Perkins. His rival in the final is South Africa's Bongani Mwelase.

Varghese looked all set to surprise David Price in their above 91kg bout, leading 5-2, 8-6, 7-3 till the third round. However, Price staged an incredible comeback in the last round. Price stunned Varghese with a powerful punch to his face and though the Indian got up, he received another blow. The referee intervened and stopped the contest.

In the 51kg category, Jitender went down to Gareth Don Broadhurst of England 26-31 in a slow-paced bout.

Vikas sixth, Pinki fails

Vikas Gowda finished a poor sixth in the discus event, while Pinki Parmanik's personal best wasn't enough to put her in the final of the 800m. Much was expected from Vikas but he came up with a below par 60.08, and that too in his fifth attempt. The gold went to Australia's Scott Martin (63.48).

Pinki's clocked a personal best 2:03.83s in the second semifinal to finish fifth in the field of eight runners and bowed out.

In the men's 200m final for Elite Athletes with Disability (EAD), India's Girraj was disqualified owing to a false start.

Superb show by Sharath

Meanwhile, India's top paddler A. Sharath Kamal put up a sparkling display to outclass Andrew Rushton of England 4-1 and breezed into the quarterfinals. However, his team-mate Subhajit Saha went down to Zi Yang of Singapore 1-4. In the women section, Mouma Das lost to Singapore's Yan Xu 4-3 in the pre-quarterfinals. Poulomi Ghatak also lost her match to Miao Miao of Australia 1-4, while Mo Zhang beat a gritty Nandita Saha 4-3.

In mixed doubles, Soumyadeep Roy and Mouma Das blanked Baggaley and Walkar (England) 3-0. Earlier, Soumyadeep had lost in the singles to Jason Ho of Singapore 2-3. Kasturi Chakraborty too lost the singles match to Karen Li of New Zealand 4-1.

In badminton, Olympian Aparna Popat created a flutter, overcoming defending champion Li Li of Singapore 10-21, 23-21, 21-17 in a gruelling contest that lasted 53 minutes.

However, Saina Nehwal and Trupti Murgunde fell by the wayside. Trupti lost to eighth seed Susan Hughes of Scotland 21-17, 21-9, while Saina went down fighting to Singapore's Aiying Xing 21-14, 13-21, 6-21.

In the men's category, Chetan Anand and Anup Sridhar sailed into the quarterfinals. Chetan crushed his Mauritius rival Stephen Beeharry 21-14, 21-6, while Anup ousted fifth-seeded Geoffrey Bellingham of New Zealand 21-10, 21-10.

However, the men's doubles pair of Chetan Anand and V. Diju crashed out, losing to the formidable Singapore duo of Ronald Susilo and Kurniawan Hendri Saputra 14-21, 8-21.

Mixed luck

In women's doubles, India had mixed luck with Jwala Gutta and Shruti Kurian moving into the last eight. However, Saina and Trupti failed to cross the pre-quarterfinal hurdle.

Jwala and Shruti humbled the South African pair of Michelle Edwards and Lee Kerry Harrington 21-8, 21-4. Saina and Trupti fell to England's Kate Ella Tripp and Joanne Nicholas 21-7, 12-21, 18-21.

Cagers eighth

The Indian men basketballers completed their maiden campaign finishing eighth after going down to South Africa 59-65 on Thursday. Despite a spirited performance in the second-half, the South Africans withstood the onslaught to win the match.

South Africa showed poise under pressure in the final few minutes. Neo Mothiba, one of South Africa's stars of the tournament, shot a game high 25 points, including 11 in the third quarter, and hauled in 10 rebounds. — Agencies

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