The Hindu : Sport / Boxing : Indians win two golds

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Monday, Jun 23, 2008
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Indians win two golds

New Delhi: Indian boxers dominated the Chemistry Cup in Halle, Germany, with the Olympic qualified duo of Vijender (75kg) and Jitender (51kg) grabbing gold medals in the event.

Sanjay Kumar, participating in his first international tournament, clinched the silver in the 60kg category.

A.L. Lakra (57kg), Dinesh Kumar (81kg) and Parminder (81kg) won bronze medals to make it a memorable outing for the nine-member Indian team, which had gone there as part of its build-up for Beijing.

An elated coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu said the tournament gave his wards good exposure.

“It was a good experience and I always knew that my boys will do well. Jitender beat two Olympic qualified boxers while Vijender also beat some tough rivals to win the gold medals,” Sandhu told PTI from Halle.

The coach also denied reports that Commonwealth Games gold medallist Akhil Kumar (54kg) had hurt himself during the training there.

Media reports had stated that Akhil’s recurring wrist injury had forced his pullout from the tourney but Sandhu said the Asian Championship bronze medallist was merely rested and had not aggravated his injury as reported.

“Akhil is fine. He took part in eight drill bouts here and since this tournament holds little significance we decided to rest him. There is no truth to reports that he has hurt himself,” he said.

Akhil himself was surprised by the fuss created by his pull-out from the tourney.

“I am surprised because I have not hurt myself. My wrist is recovering well and there is nothing to worry.

“I trained hard but decided to skip the tourney because it is not all that important, not because I had hurt myself,” he said. — PTI

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