Guangzhou: Indian boxing's poster boy Vijender Singh pummeled two-time world champion Abbos Atoev into submission with a commanding 7-0 triumph in the 75kg category to give the country's campaign in the Asian Games a golden finish here on Friday.
The dashing Beijing Olympic Games bronze-medal winner Vijender destroyed the Ubzek boxer and later said his next aim is to win gold in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
But two other Indian boxers - Santosh Kumar in the 64 kg category and Manpreet Singh in the 91 kg category - lost in the finals and settled for silver medals.
Santosh was mercilessly thrashed by Kazhakstan's Daniyar Yeleussinov 0-16 while Manpreet Singh lost tamely to Mohammed Ghossoun of Syria 1-8.
India finished their boxing campaign with their best-ever haul of nine medals (two gold, four silver and four bronze), including two in the women's competition that made its debut here.
The other gold medal came from Vikas Krishan in the 60kg class.
After his comprehensive victory over his Uzbek opponent, 25-year-old Bhiwani boxer, Vijender said he thoroughly enjoyed the thrashing of one of the top fighters in amateur boxing and that his next goal was the Olympic gold.
"My next goal is to win the Olympic gold in 2012. I felt hungry for the title and enjoyed beating the world champion," said Vijender who had ended up with a disappointing bronze medal in last month's Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
He also avenged his defeat to the same Uzbek rival at last year's World Championship in Italy in which he won a bronze.
The loss against Atoev in Italy still rankled him but on Friday he carried too much weight in his punches and the Uzbek found Vijender too hot to handle.
He was cheered all the way during his bout at the Foshan Stadium by a small bunch of Indian supporters that included India's ambassador to China S Jaishankar.
After his triumph, Vijender kneeled down in the middle of the ring with his arms raised in victory.
The Indian, who normally adopts an open stance, on Friday kept his guard and scored whenever he got a chance to break his rival's defence.
Vijender led 2-0 in the first round to make the Uzbek desperate for points.
The Indian, who is into meditation to help him concentrate better, quickly raked three more points with a combination of punches and straight ones to take a commanding 5-0 lead.
Atoev, unable to breach the Indian's defence, became more desperate in the third round but Vijender scored two more points with the openings that he got and won the bout with a commanding score.
Manpreet, though being outclassed by his Syrian rival, promised to put up a better show in the future.
"My rival had come up with good tactics and had a good defence. I learned from him and will win against him the nest time. I will improve in future competitions quickly," he said.
Comments
0 comment