The Hindu : Sport / Boxing : Suresh loses in first round

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 25, 2007
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Sport - Boxing

Suresh loses in first round

Chicago: S. Suresh Singh suffered an early blow in his quest to gain yet another shot at Olympics when the Indian bantamweight champion lost in the opening round of the 54kg bout in the World boxing championship here on Wednesday.

Suresh, who contested in the Sydney Olympics before a major head injury put him out of competition for over two years, lost to Hungary’s David Oltvanyi 4-9 after being down 0-2 in the first round of the four-round bout.

The World Championship is the first qualifying event for next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing. A quarterfinal finish is all that is required to earn the Olympic quota.

Suresh made a return to competitive boxing early this year and made an impact by beating reigning National Games champion, Narjit Singh of Services, in the National championship to earn his place in the World Championship squad. The Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) had originally planned to send a nine-member team for the Chicago event, but Som Bahadur Pun pulled out at the last minute due to jaundice.

On the second day, two Indians will be on show, including the best bet, middleweight pugulist Vijender.

The Melbourne Commonwealth Games silver medallist will be up against Romania’s Ronald Gavril in the first round of the 75kg category.

Featherweight A.L. Lakra will open his campaign against Korea’s Ju Min-Jae.

The championship opened with a grand ceremony that had the legendary Muhammad Ali as the chief guest.

The biggest upset came in the light-welterweight class when the reigning Olympic champion Manus Boonjumnong of Thailand lost to Masatsugu Kawachi of Japan in the 64kg first-round bout.

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