Amit faces Olympic champion for boxing gold
Amit Panghal is the last Indian boxer left standing at the Jakarta Asian Games. The Gold Coast Commonwealth Games silver medallist brought the smiles back with a lucky semi-final win after the experienced Vikas Krishan pulled out of his middleweight (75kg) bout against Kazakhstan’s Abilkhan Amankul even before it started.
A country that won five medals — a gold and four bronze — at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, India looked out of sorts in Jakarta. Gold medallist at the 2010 Games in Incheon, Vikas was a big hope but a deep cut above his left eye left him unfit.
With experience on his side and the “pressure of expectation,” Amit took on Filipino Paalam Carlo in the light flyweight (49 kg) category and scraped through with a 3-2 decision. The 23-year-old Haryana boxer will now face Uzbekistan’s Olympic champion Hasanboy Dusmatov, who blanked his Chinese opponent Wu Zhonglin 5-0.
Amit was circumspect in the opening round as Paalam explored ways to breach the Indian’s defence with a flurry of left-right combinations. The nippy Filipino, bronze medallist at the 2016 AIBA World Youth Championships at St Petersburg, seemed to be the more aggressive player but Amit regained composure and won points mainly in the third round.
The Indian’s defence looked a tad sluggish as he kept dropping his head and his punches were mostly off target. Amit will have to be careful against the gifted Dusmatov on Saturday, the final day of the boxing programme.
“I was a bit sluggish in the first round as I started the warm-up late. The body was slow initially and I was also sizing up my rival,” said Amit. “My experience came in handy today. My final bout is against an experienced boxer. He had defeated me in the World Championships quarter-final last year.”
BRONZE FOR VIKAS
Vikas Krishan, however, could only lament that he couldn’t play his semis bout. The deep oneand-a-half inch gash over his left eye looked serious but despite that, he had asked for permission from his coach and doctor to play.