The Hindu : Sport / Boxing : Jitender, Lakra move closer to Olympic berths

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 29, 2007
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Sport - Boxing

Jitender, Lakra move closer to Olympic berths

CHICAGO: Jitender Kumar and A.L. Lakra kept alive India’s hopes of earning Olympic quota berths with impressive second round wins at the World boxing championship here on Saturday.

The day, however, ended on a sour note with India’s best hope, middleweight pugilist Vijender Singh losing to Venezuelan Alfonso Blanco.

Vijender outplayed

Vijender, the most consistent Indian performer in the ring, was outdone 8-13 by Blanco, the quarterfinalist at the Pan American Games in July.

Vijender, the Asian silver medallist, received a rude blow in the opening round and he failed to recover from that.

Vijender was down 1-4 in the first and he went into a defensive frame of mind closing the second 3-6.

Blanco was up again in the third and scored five points against three as Vijender lost all hopes of a comeback.

He will now have to go through continental qualifiers next year to make it to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Inspiring show

Earlier, Asian bronze medallist Jitender brought cheers to the Indian camp.

The flyweight boxer defeated Ronny Beblik of Germany 29-10 in an inspiring show.

Jitender opened with a flurry of punches and collected eight points against four by Beblik, in the first round. A 6-1 decision in the second virtually nailed the German as the Indian closed with 7-0 after having scored 8-5 in the third.

Jitender is just one win away from Olympic quota. He next meets Georgy Balakshin of Russia, a tough opponent, on Wednesday.

Balakshin, the European champion in 2004 and 2006, was a quarterfinalist at the Athens Olympics, where the Russian lost to the eventual winner, Yuriorkis Gamboa Toledano of Cuba.

Balakshin defeated Nurlan Uulu Aidarbek of Kyrgyzstan when the referee stopped the contest in the third round.

The 2005 Commonwealth champion Lakra also moved closer to the qualification round with a 25-6 win over Bahodir Karimov of Tajikistan.

Taking charge

Lakra landed scoring punches to open up a 5-0 lead. A 7-2 decision in the second and 8-2 in the third left the Tajik in tatters.

Lakra, who joined the team late after participating in the World Military Games in Hyderabad, next meets Shahin Imranov of Azerbaijan, on Tuesday.

Imranov, the Athens Olympian and European silver medallist in 2002 and 2006, beat Valentins Morozovs as his Latvian opponent retired in the third round.

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