Narjit Singh was the only Indian standing after the semifinals of the fourth Military World Games boxing event here on Friday, with the hosts suffering badly in four weight divisions at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium.
Narjit Singh was the only Indian standing after the semifinals of the fourth Military World Games boxing event here on Friday, with the hosts suffering badly in four weight divisions at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium.
Narjit battled past South Korea’s Jang Kwan Sik in the bantamweight division to raise visions of a gold medal on the final day of competitions on Saturday. His team-mates, however, met their match in opponents who were superior in technique and skill.
Foursome beaten
Satya Raju, D Bhagyarajan, Hari Kishan Beliwal and Mohinder Thapa all went out, with bronze medals being a certainty for the four.
Narjit mixed attack and defence in the right measure to defeat Jang in his semifinal. The 24-year-old Indian pegged back Jang in the first round itself, even though he did slip and fall once.
He treaded cautiously in the next three rounds, defending well and delivering solid punches whenever opportunity presented itself. Jang’s desperate measures sent the Indian tumbling onto the floor three times in the final round but his unfair methods failed to benefit the Korean.
In control
“He did trouble me in the final round, but I knew I had the bout in control,” said Narjit, who will be fighting Marcel Schnieder of Germany in the final. Schnieder defeated Chol Jim Ryom of North Korea in his semifinal.
Among the other Indians, Beliwal lost 7-15 to Gao Linzhi of China in flyweight.
Satya Raju bowed to Y Ramashkevich of Belarus 5-21 in lightwelter, Bhagyarajan was beaten 24-9 by H Rawshan of Uzbekistan and Mohinder crashed to a 2-18 defeat against Aleh Dymkavets of Belarus in light-heavy.
Much was expected from Bhagyarajan after his superb performance against Rinat Karimov of Germany in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
But the Indian failed to come to grips with the quicksilver Rawshan. Bhagyarajan was in contention after the first round when the scores read 4-4. That was the time Rawshan took to size up the Indian.
From then on, it was just one-way traffic as the Uzbek boxer stepped up the pace, exposing the numerous chinks in Bhagyarajan's defence.
Thapa was another who looked clueless on the day. Dymkavets simply swatted aside the Indian, who was tentative right from the beginning. The result was a foregone conclusion well before the final round.
