Teen boxing sensation Vikas Krishan (69kg), who fetched India’s lone medal at last month’s World Championships, zoomed to a career-best second spot but Olympic hero Vijender Singh (75kg) did not find a place in the latest international rankings issued by AIBA.
Asian Games gold medallist Vikas has 1300 points in the latest rankings, making him the highest-placed Indian across all 10 weight categories of the International Boxing Association’s (AIBA) latest list.
The top spot in Vikas’ category has gone to Ukraine’s Taras Shelestyuk, who beat the 19-year-old Indian in the semifinals of the showpiece, which was also the first Olympic qualifying event.
Four Indian boxers — L Devendro Singh (49kg), Jai Bhagwan (60kg), Manoj Kumar (64kg) and Vikas — made the Olympic cut by reaching the World Championships’ quarterfinals and all of them have improved their rankings as well.
But former world number one Vijender, who lost in the very first round of the mega event, did not find a place in the list of ranked middleweight boxers due to the two-year rolling period criteria, under which points earned at the 2009 World Championships were removed from the current ranking.
