It turned out to be a largely disappointing day for Indian boxers at the Asian Games with former World Championship bronze-medallist Vikas Krishan (75kg) being the only one to advance, making the quarterfinal, while three others fell by the wayside in Incheon on Monday.
Gaurav Bhiduri (52kg), Mandeep Jangra (69kg) and Kuldeep Singh (81kg) bowed out after losing their respective quarterfinal bouts.
Vikas was the first Indian boxer to take the ring today and he advanced to the quarterfinals after a comfortable win over Kanybek Uulu Azamat of Kyrgyzstan.
The former World Championship bronze-medallist was on the top of his defensive game against Azamat.
Vikas is making his debut in the middleweight category after injury forced first choice and defending gold-medallist Vijender Singh to give the Games a miss.
The Haryana-lad relied on his tried and tested technique of counter-attack. He waited for his rival to drop the guard and then knocked him back with incisive jabs.
With a shell guard which rarely gave Azamat any chance of landing a clear punch, Vikas impressed with his foot movement and his ring craft was duly appreciated by judges, who declared him an unanimous 3-0 winner.
Vikas will face Normatov Hurshidbek of Uzbekistan in the quarterfinal.
However, Asian Championships silver-medallist Mandeep and rookie Gaurav Bhiduri fell by the wayside in the last eight stage losing their respective bouts 0-3.
While Mandeep lost to Thailand’s Saensit Apichet, Bhiduri was beaten by Uzbekistan’s Zoirov Shakhobidin. Mandeep faced two knockdown counts during the bout.
Later, Kuldeep, a national champion, went down to Iran’s Rouzbahani Ehsan 0-3 to end a poor day for the country’s male boxers.
In sharp contrast, all the three women in fray --M C Mary Kom (51kg), L Sarita Devi (60kg) and Pooja Rani (75kg) -- have assured themselves of medals by advancing to the semifinals.
