Boxing
New Delhi: India’s hopes of winning a bagful of gold medals from boxing in the Commonwealth Games suffered a setback as their three hardhitters lost semifinal bouts to settle for bronze at the Talkatora Stadium here today.
CWG Championships gold medallist Amandeep Singh (49kg), Asian Games silver-medallist Jai Bhagwan (60kg) and a 9 time national champion Dilbag Singh (69kg) had to settle with bronze medals after losing their semifinal bouts.
Jai lost 5-10 to European Championships silver medalist Englishman Thomas Stalker, Amandeep lost 0-5 to Olympic bronze medallist and European champion Paddy Barnes of Northern Ireland and Dilbag was beaten 4-5 in a thrilling contest against Northern Ireland’s Patrick Gallagher.
Amandeep was the first to take the ring for India today and he just could not break Barnes’ shell guard despite his best efforts.
The first round had Barnes leading 2-0 and the Olympian’s brilliant anticipation of Amandeep’s attack ensured that he did not concede a single point even in the next 2 rounds thus keeping the scoreline for Amandeep to nil
“I tried everything to break his guard but it just didn’t happen. I was hitting a lot of uppercuts but it didn’t work,” said a disappointed Amandeep. “The combination attack didn’t work as well; Barnes was good enough in anticipating them all. But I am happy to have won a medal in my very first CWG,” he said after the match to the media.
Next was Jai and inspite of putting up a good fight, the Indian boxer was given a couple of warnings that seemed too harsh. Jai led 3-1 in the opening round but the advantage was reduced to 4-3 when he was warned for hitting Stalker below the waist not once but twice.
The warnings ultimately shifted the momentum in the Englishman’s favour, who found himself leading only towards the end of the 2nd round. Once ahead, stalker lowered his guard and went for an all out counter attack against Jai, who could not anticipate nor block any of the blows.
“The warnings were slightly harsh. I think the first time around, I hit him only on his hand but may be the referee didn’t get a clear view of where exactly the punch landed,” Jai said. “But every loss is a lesson learnt. I will go back and see the recordings of the bout,” he added in the post match interview
Dilbag was the last Indian to step inside the arena in the first session and he gave it his all against Gallagher only to lose the bout by a whisker. The entertaining bout had both the boxers employing some unorthodox tactics and the crowd was kept amused with a bit of wrestling as well.
The first round ended 1-1 as both tried to probe each other. Dilbag bounced back in the final three minutes but Gallagher’s evasive tactics ensured that the Indian could not breach his lead.
Tags: Amandeep Singh, Boxers, Boxing, Commonwealth Games, Commonwealth Games, Dilbag Singh, Indian Sports, Jai Bhagwan, Sports, Sports India
