New Delhi: India’s Vikas Krishan (69kg) had to settle for a bronze medal in the World Boxing Championships after a 12-15 loss to Taras Shelestyuk of Ukraine in the semi-finals in Baku (Azerbaijan) Friday.
The 19-year-old equaled the feat of compatriot Vijender Singh’s bronze at the Milan World Championships in 2009. He also qualified for the London Olympics.
With Krishan’s loss, the Indian challenge at the championships came to an end.
It was an impressive performance by the teenager, who was participating in his first senior world championship.
Both the boxers started cautiously but the Ukrainian boxer did not let the Indian play his usual game and soon took a 4-2 lead in the first round.
Krishan, the Asian Games gold medalist, tried hard to get back in the game but could not break the strong defence of Shelestyuk. The Indian came back strongly in the final round with some feisty combinations, scoring 6 points as opposed to Shelestyuk’s 5, but fell short overall.
Four Indian boxers– Krishan (69 kg), Jai Bhagwan (60 kg), Manoj Kumar (64 kg) and Devendro Singh (49kg)– made it to the quarter-final round in the tournament and qualified for the 2012 London Games.
64 boxers have so far have qualified from Baku for London Olympics. Russia and Ukraine have 5 boxers qualifying, while Cuba, India, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have four each.
IANS
