Satish boxes his way into semis

Bangkok, September 2

Satish Kumar entered the semifinals of the 91kg- plus category to assure himself of a medal and a World Championships berth even as two other Indians fell by the wayside on a bitter-sweet day for the country in the Asian Boxing Championships here today.

Satish outpunched Tajikistan’s Siyovush Zukhurov to bring some cheer to the Indian camp, which had been left disappointed by the defeats of Madan Lal (52kg) and Kuldeep Singh (81kg) 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 Indian.

After a rest day tomorrow, Satish will be up against second seed Wang Zhibao of China in the semifinals. “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,” said national coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu.

First up for India today was Madan Lal against second-seed Shakhobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan. Up against a sharp, nimble-footed and incisive rival, Madan looked clueless. The Haryana lad couldn’t respond to the unrelenting assault by Zoirov, who toyed with him before clinching it 3-0. Next man in was Kuldeep and he put up a valiant fight before going down 1-2 to second seed Korean Kim Hyeongkyu. In the final round, Kuldeep went on an all-out offensive but could not get the judges’ nod despite seemingly dominating the contest. “Kuldeep fought like a lion, it was a brilliant performance given that he was the underdog. It is sad that he had to end up on the losing side,” said Sandhu.

India now have four boxers in the semis. Satish joins Devendro Singh (49kg), Shiva Thapa (56kg) and Vikas Krishan (75kg) in the last-four stage. “I am satisfied with the performance of the boys. To have four boxers in the semis is good, hopefully they would do better,” said Sandhu. — PTI

AIBA wants India back in WSB

n India’s boxing administration might be in a shambles but International Boxing Association (AIBA) president 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,” said Wu. He said India is a huge market which remains untapped and efforts would be made to bring it back into WSB. “We have to keep focusing to involve more nations from Asia, especially India and Thailand to the World Series of Boxing which is our successful project. India is a big market with a lot of boxers, therefore our job has not been finalised yet in the continent,” said Wu. India had a WSB franchise till 2012 before administrative turmoil played a part in the owners giving up the stake. — PTI