Press Trust of India
Bangkok, Sept 2: Satish Kumar (+91kg) entered the semifinals to book himself a medal and a World Championship berth even as two other Indians fell by the wayside on a bitter-sweet day for the country’s boxers in the Asian Championships here Wednesday.
Satish outpunched Tajikistan’s Siyovush Zukhurov to bring some cheer to the Indian camp, which had been left disappointed by contrasting defeats that Madan Lal (52kg) and Kuldeep Singh (81kg) faced 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 ferocity of the Indian’s beating.
After a rest day Thursday, Satish will be up against second seed Wang Zhibao of China in the semifinal. However, there was disappointment too as Madan and Kuldeep bowed out.
First up for India was Madan Lal against second seed Shakhobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan. The odds were loaded against the Indian and he failed to beat him in the lopsided contest. Up against a sharp, quick on the feet and incisive rival, Madan was all at sea and was thrown off balance on more than one occasion.
The Haryana-lad hardly managed to respond to the unrelenting assault by Zoirov, who quite literally toyed with him in the last few seconds of the bout before clinching it 3-0.
Next man in was Kuldeep and he gave a valiant fight before going down 1-2 to second seed Korean Kim Hyeongkyu. The former national champion was not the least bit intimidated by his more fancied opponent and managed to unsettle him with some clever counter-attacks. After being matched punch for punch in the opening round, Hyeongkyu was cautious in the second round and hesitated in launching any attacks against the gutsy Indian.
In the final round, Kuldeep went on an all out offensive but could not get the Judges’ nod despite seemingly dominating the contest.
