Satish Kumar (+91kg) entered the semifinals to book himself a medal and a World Championship berth even as two other Indians fell by the wayside on a bitter-sweet day for the country’s boxers in the Asian Championships here today.
Satish outpunched Tajikistan’s Siyovush Zukhurov to bring some cheer to the Indian camp, which had been left disappointed by contrasting defeats that Madan lal (52kg) and Kuldeep Singh (81kg) faced earlier in the day. Satish was awarded a win via Technical Knockout after his opponent received two warnings for excessive bending, besides showing an inability to deal with the ferocity of the Indian’s beating.
After a rest day on Thursday, Satish will be up against second seed Wang Zhibao of China in the semifinal.
However, there was disappointment too as Madan and Kuldeep bowed out, even though they still have a chance of making the World Championships cut if their respective rivals make the finals.
“Satish was very dominant in the bout and the referee had to stop the contest in the third round because the Tajik was unable to handle the beating and was indulging in excessive bending,” national coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu said.
First up for India today was Madan lal against second seed Shakhobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan. The odds were loaded against the Indian and he failed to beat him in the lopsided contest. Up against a sharp, quick on the feet and incisive rival, Madan was all at sea and was thrown off balance on more than one occasion.
The Haryana-lad hardly managed to respond to the unrelenting assault by Zoirov, who quite literally toyed with him in the last few seconds of the bout before clinching it 3-0. Next man in was Kuldeep and he gave a valiant fight before going down 1-2 to second seed Korean Kim Hyeongkyu.
Today’s results leave the total number of Indians in the semifinal at four. l Devendro Singh (49kg), Shiva Thapa (56kg) and Vikas Krishan (75kg) had earlier assured themselves of medals.
‘India among strong boxing nations’
India’s boxing administration might be in shambles but International Boxing Association (AIBA) president Dr Ching Kuo Wu says the country still counts among the best in Asia and efforts would be made to bring it back into the semi-professional World Series of Boxing (WSB).
“We have got strong and traditional boxing nations in the continent, I would like to mention at least Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, China, Thailand, India and Mongolia,” Dr Wu said.
Three Indian boxers have made the semi-finals of the ongoing event, which is a qualifier for the World Championship in Doha. Incidentally, World Championship is the first qualifying tournament for the next year’s Rio Olympics.
The performance is despite the administrative mess back home. As of now, the country does not have an active federation after a new body — formed only last year — disintegrated following the sacking of its president and Secretary General owing to a revolt by the state units. Dr Wu said India is a huge market which remains untapped and efforts would be made to bring it back into WSB.