Sport

Akhil Kumar loses to Gojan

BEIJING: Akhil Kumar lost rather tamely to Veaceslav Gojan of Moldova, 3-10 in the quarterfinals of the bantamweight class, as the Indian contingent struggled to digest the disappointment of a missed medal in the boxing ring at the Worker’s Gymnasium here on Monday evening.

After the disappointment of Gurcharan Singh missing a medal after a tie in the quarterfinals of the light heavyweight category in the Sydney Games, when he got punched in the last few seconds to lose the lead, Indian boxing had at last started seeing an Olympic medal.

And the main force behind the progress was the spirited Akhil Kumar.

Having beaten the world champion Sergey Vodopyanov of Russia in the second round, apart from the 2005 bronze medallist Ali Hallab of France in the first, the 27-year-old Akhil had raised a lot of hopes of a medal, though he himself would not talk anything less than the gold itself.

However, the talented boxer who dares his opponents with unorthodox methods, by refusing to put up a defensive posture paid for his gallantry, against the sharp scoring abilities of the Moldovan whose defence also looked impregnable.

It was a steady start, as Akhil equalised with a straight left after Gojan had gone ahead to grab the first point of the bout.

Akhil came up with an upper-cut early in the second round to go 2-1 up, but that was the last time he led in the bout. Gojan equalised with a quick right for 2-2 before the second round wound up.

Into the third round, it was clear that the Moldovan had seen through Akhil’s tricks as much as the rival’s lack of an alternative strategy.

While Gojan smartly kept unleashing the rights to gather quick points that enlarged the lead to 6-2, Akhil struggled to break into his opponent’s strong defence.

The writing was very much on the wall when the lead swelled to 8-2 for the Moldovan early in the fourth and final round.

“Whoever throws his punches well, and according to the plan, and takes the lead, wins. It was not my day. He was better and he won,” conceded Akhil, quite composed after the defeat as he stressed that one had to take both victory and defeat with humility.

“I had not thought about winning today, as my form has not been great. I am ecstatic”, said Gojan.

The Cuban coach of the Indian team, B. I. Fernandez, was not too happy with the string of points that the Moldovan had been awarded.

Chief coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu said that it was important to set the momentum in scoring.

“Once you get hit badly, you are gone. Akhil got hit badly once and that was it. His opponent started getting points and there was no stopping. It happens in boxing,” Sandhu said.

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