The Hindu : Sport : Vijender caps a memorable day for India

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Vijender caps a memorable day for India

Kamesh Srinivasan

Assures a first-ever medal for the country in boxing; Jitender goes down fighting

— PHOTO: AFP

TAKE A BOW: Vijender Kumar made history by becoming the first Indian pugilist to enter the semifinals in Olympics.

BEIJING: Boxer Vijender Kumar provided a tremendous finish to a memorable day for India by ensuring a medal in the middleweight class, with an authoritative 9-4 victory over Carlos Gongora of Ecuador in the quarterfinals at the Workers’ Gymnasium here on Wednesday night.

It was a perfect finish to a day when India ensured two medals, after the one in wrestling through Sushil Kumar, when it was desperately looking for one medal to add to the gold won by Abhinav Bindra.

Vijender is easily the best boxer in the Indian contingent, and he had shown his class in the Asian Games in Doha, where he was unlucky not to get anything better than a bronze.

It was a delight to watch Vijender in action this day, as he weaved his way past the punches of his opponent and landed his decisive blows right from the start to keep the score going in his favour.

Good start

The key to the success was the 22-year-old Bhiwani boxer being unruffled and getting off to a good start, when he opened with a sharp right and followed that with a combination that fetched him two points in the first round.

Into the second round, Vijender continued with his good work, and was using his left with great effect to gain valuable points. It was 4-1 for Vijender at the end of the second round. What clinched the issue was how Vijender kept the marauding Ecuadorian who was tipped by the pundits as one of the favourites in the event, at a distance.

Vijender ran up a 7-2 lead by the end of the third round, by piercing the defence of the opponent, including once through a left uppercut.

Into the fourth and final round, Vijender led 8-2 and got punched a couple of times to concede points, but he cracked a right to take a 9-4 lead. In the last 30 seconds, Vijender just teased his opponent with a bit of back-pedalling and made sure that no surprise punch spoilt his and the country’s moment of glory.

“I am really happy to win a medal for India. All credit goes to my coaches and my parents, especially my father who went to a far-away temple to pray for my success. Since my teammates Akhil (Kumar) and Jitender (Kumar) had lost, I was keen to win a medal,” said Vijender, quite overwhelmed with his effort.

Talking about the opponent, Vijender stressed that the only problem was that Gongora was a southpaw.

“I had studied him well by watching his videos. My strategy was to watch, attack and defend,” said Vijender.

Coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu and the Cuban coach B.I. Fernandez were impressed with the quality of boxing by Vijender. It was indeed a relief for them after having seen Gurcharan Singh miss a medal from the ring side in the Sydney Games in 2000.

“Vijender fought very well. He was brilliant. His opponent was a good boxer, and he has done well to win a medal. He fought with skill, used his mind and body as well. It was really fantastic to watch him in action in such an important bout. Our strategy was to counter-attack and to keep him fresh,” said coach Sandhu.

Meets Correa Bayeaus

Vijender will meet Cuban Emilio Correa Bayeaus in the semifinals.

Meanwhile, Jitender went down with guns blazing in the quarterfinals of the 51kg category earlier in the evening.

For someone who had to be administered 11 stitches for a cut below his chin that he had suffered during his last bout, Jitender fought with great courage and skill. He was unlucky not to force more points from the judges.

Breaking away

The fight was even till the end of the second round when Jitender trailed 6-7. However, into the third round, the Russian, Georgy Balkshin widened the gap to 13-8 and the writing was on the wall.

Jitender got two additional points when the Russian was warned for holding on to the opponent in the fourth and final round, but the gap was too much to bridge within a short time.

“The problem was that he took the lead first, and it became difficult for me to overcome him in the later stages of the bout. Things would have been different had I taken the lead,” said Jitender.

“I was asked to go all out by the coaches in the third round. But, I was worried about the stitches below my chin. If I had got hit and started oozing blood from the chin, the referee would have stopped the fight. I had to be careful and the psychological barrier was more difficult to overcome than facing the opponent,” confessed Jitender.

“I will win a medal in the Olympics in London in 2012,” the Bhiwani boxer stated.

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