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Indian pugilists advance
| Women archers have a disastrous day |
Virdhawal Khade set a national record but finished only 42nd overall
BEIJING: The Indian boxers asserted their class as Akhil Kumar and Jitender Kumar moved into the second round with convincing victories at the Worker’s Gymnasium here on Tuesday. Akhil Kumar was robust in dismissing the challenge from Ali Hallab of France with a 12-5 victory in the first round of the bantamweight category.
Jitender Kumar was more assertive in his victory over the youngest boxer in the Games, the 17-year-old Furkan Ulas Memis of Turkey, in the first round of the flyweight class. Jitender was leading 12-1 in the third round of the bout, when the Turkey coach threw in the towel, to signal retirement of his ward.
Tactical winAfter taking an 8-1 lead, Akhil conserved his energy and played out time, even as he kept the opponent away.
“He is a very good boxer, but I knew that I would score,” said Akhil, who will run into the world champion Serge Vodopyanov of Russia in the next round.
“It will be a tough fight, but I am here to win the gold. I am ready to face the world champion because I want to be the No. 1 in the world. I will show this on August 15,” said Akhil.
Hallab gave him a lot of credit.
“He was good. He used good technique and great tactics. He was better than me,” said the Frenchman.
Coach Gurbax Sandhu was all praise for Akhil. “He is a class boxer. Just look at his determination,” said Sandhu.
“We did good, but the judges didn’t give us points. I couldn’t understand. We threw the towel in protest,” said the Turkey coach, Cahit Sume.
Jitender was pleased with his win, even as he praised the strong defence of his opponent.
“You got to attack, if you want to score points,” said Jitender, who will meet Rulashboy Doniyorov of Uzbekistan in the second round on August 16.
Archers disappointPranitha Vardhineni had the satisfaction of winning a round, but the Indian women archers disappointed with their inability to make progress at the Olympic Green Archery field.
The young Pranitha did well to beat Jane Waller of Australia 106-100 in the round of 32. She had five 10s, as against two by her opponent.
However, in the next round, Pranitha was unable to continue with her good work and failed to find a single 10 in losing 99-106 against Un Sil Kwon of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Dola Banerjee was unable to enact any magic though she had done well to tie 109-109 against Marie-Pier Beaudet of Canada in the first round.
In the tie-break, the Canadian hit the bull’s eye with a 10, while Dola bowed out with an eight.
Dola had been out of form of late and needed repeated trials to confirm her entry into the Indian team. Incidentally, the Indian team lost in the first round to China.
The third Indian woman archer in the fray, national champion Bombayla Devi also failed to strike a single 10 as she lost by two points 101-103 to Iwona Marcinkiewick of Poland in the first round.
Indian archery will look up to Mangal Singh Champia who had finished second in the ranking round on the opening day, to salvage some pride.
Khade wins his heatsIn swimming, the 16-year-old Virdhawal Khade won the third heat in 100m freestyle with a national record, clocking 50.07 seconds, but finished only 42nd overall. He beat his own previous record of 50.49 in the World Youth Meet in Mexico.
Sandeep Sejwal finished second in the first heat in 200m breastroke with a timing of 2:15.24, which bettered his career best time of 2:18.23.
The effort put him 36th in the overall list. In rowing, Devender Kumar Khandwal and Manjeet Singh finished fifth in the lightweight double sculls repechage, in 7 minutes 2.06 seconds.
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