The Hindu : Sport / Boxing : Jitender, Jai Bhagwan light up Indian fightback

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Saturday, Oct 27, 2007
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Sport - Boxing

Jitender, Jai Bhagwan light up Indian fightback

Jitender now meets Ronny Beblik of Germany
The best performance came from Jai Bhagwan

CHICAGO: Asian bronze medallists, flyweight Jitender Kumar and Jai Bhagwan, rose to the occasion on a mixed day for India as three of the remaining five pugilists punched their way into the second round in the World boxing championship here on Thursday.

Welterweight Dilbag Singh completed the Indian line-up for the second round, after Vijender Singh and A.L. Lakra went through on Wednesday.

On the third day of the World championship, India suffered an early setback when Commonwealth silver medallist and former World cadet champion, Balbir Singh, lost to Birzham Zhakypov of Kazakhstan in a light-flyweight first round bout. India ended its day on a sour note with light-heavy Jasveer Singh losing to China’s Zhang Xiaoping.

Slender lead

Jitender Kumar (51kg) had a slender two-point lead after the first round was 15-12 up going in to the fourth and final round, wherein he scored five against two for a 20-14 win over the Moldovan.

Jitender now meets Ronny Beblik of Germany, a 16-13 winner over Colombia’s William Urina Serna, on Saturday night.

Dilbag Singh (69kg) came out unscathed in a low-scoring bout against Lithuanian champion, Roman Skerlo. Dilbag opened with a 4-2 lead and improved upon the scores through consistent punching. He won 13-5.

On Sunday, Dilbag will be up against Zoran Mtrovic of Serbia, a 17-12 winner over Neil Perkins of England.

The best performance came from Jai Bhagwan (60kg) who went on a rampage against Valertino Knowles of Bahamas. Jai Bhagwan utilised the first round to gauge his opponent.

Flurry of punches

Opening the second round at 6-3, Bhagwan let loose a flurry of punches. The Indian earned 11 points against two by Knowles and almost repeated the same in the third to improve his lead to 27-9. Bhagwan finally won 35-12 to set up a second round clash with Vasil Qazishvili of Georgia, a 28-15 victor against Owethu Mbira of South Africa.

Of the two setbacks for India, Balbir’s loss was unexpected. The light-fly pugilist was trained specially to go up the ladder, but his Kazakh opponent had other ideas. Balbir, who withheld his decision to turn pro to have a shot at Olympics, lost 11-27 against Zhakypov.

In the 81kg category, Jasveer was the weakest of all. He had no answer to the pounding unleashed by Zhang and lost 3-17.

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