PTI
Rio de Janeiro, August 16: Distraught after a comprehensive quarterfinal loss ended his Olympic dream here Monday night, boxer Vikas Krishan (75kg) said he could not have done better than what he managed against the more powerful and compact Bektemir Melikuziev of Uzbekistan.
One win away from an Olympic medal for India, the Indian pugilist surrendered rather tamely to Melikuziev, going down 0-3 to end India’s boxing campaign in the Games without a medal.
“I’m really sorry to have let the country you down. I tried to clinch the issue in the first round itself. But once he took the first round, it was very difficult to come back, and I almost gave up,” said an emotional Vikas. Incidentally, Vikas had earlier predicted that the bout against Melikuziev would be his toughest in the competition.
The occasion was India’s 70th Independence Day and a win would have assured a medal but with Vikas’ exit, India are in danger of finishing without a medal for the first time since Barcelona 1992. “I always hoped to earn India a medal on Independence Day but I failed. I’m sorry,” he repeated again and again.
Vikas, a rare southpaw stated that lack of left-handed boxers in India made it difficult for him to train.
“I always have lost to a southpaw, be it World Championships, last Olympics or an Olympic qualifier. I’ve never won against them. There are only about five per cent southpaw boxers in India, and I’m one of them. So I don’t get opponents of my standard to train,” the boxer pointed out.
Vikas also stated that with the Indian boxing federation banned it meant the lack of opportunities for him as they ‘did not have camps for last two years and he only on his own had gone to the USA for fitness training’. This was the second time Vikas’ appeared in the Olympics and asked if he would think of turning professional, he replied: “I will go back home and spend some time with my family, then I will think.”