Vijender leads five Indians in boxing title round

Wed, Nov 24 10 08:52 PM

Guangzhou, Nov 24 (PTI) Star pugilist Vijender Singh punched his way into the final after a thrilling win to join four more Indians in the title round as boxers continued their stupendous show in the Asian Games, here today. World number one Vijender won a nail-biting 75kg semifinal bout against Mohammad Sattapour of Iran 10-7 to join teen sensation Vikas Krishan (60kg), Dinesh Kumar (81kg), Santosh Kumar (64kg) and Manpreet Singh (91kg) in the finals. However, Commonwealth Games gold medallists Suranjoy Singh (51kg) and Paramjeet Samota (+91kg) had to be content with bronze medals after losing in the semifinals. Vijender, who won a bronze in the 2006 Asian Games, was trailing 1-2 in the first round but recovered in the next two to prevail in a tense bout, in which his Iranian opponent almost matched him punch-for-punch. In the opening round, both the boxers played a waiting game before the Iranian opened up a 2-0 lead, but Vijender struck back to go into the second round at 1-2. Vijender, an Olympic and World Championship bronze medallist, was doing the catch-up job though there was not more than one-point difference between them before he jumped to 5-4 lead just before the end of second round. Having had the measure of his opponent''s tactics, Vijender went for the kill after the score was tied 6-6, and took four straight points to settle the issue. The Iranian got a point towards the close, but by then, it was too late as Vijender ensured that he did not repeat the semifinal loss in the Commonwealth Games last month. Vijender now meets Abbos Atoev of Uzbekistan in the final on Friday. Just before Vijender made it to the title round, Santosh defeated Masuk Wuttichai of Thailand in the 64kg semifinals to book a berth in the final. The Indian led 1-0 and 2-0 at the end of the first two rounds before stepping up the tempo in the third round to win the bout 5-1. He will meet Daniyar Yeleussinov of Kazakhstan in the final on Friday. In the last bout of the day, Manpreet gave further joy to the Indian camp with a 10-2 comprehensive defeat of Jakhon Qurbonov of Tajikistan. The Indian gave little scoring chance to his opponent and was up 2-0 at the end of first round and then 4-2 in second. Despite having taken a two-point lead, Manpreet went for the kill and scored four more points to end the one-sided bout. Manpreet faces Mohammad Ghossoun of Syria in the final on Friday. Earlier in the day, Vikas and Dinesh scored comprehensive wins against their opponents to make it to the finals. The 18-year-old Vikas outwitted Uzbekistan''s Hurshid Tojibaev 7-0 to set up a title clash with China''s Qing Hu. Dinesh also had little trouble in dispatching Nepal''s Deepak Maharjan 7-1 to set up a final clash with Uzbekistan''s Elshod Rasulov. .

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