DEVENDRO PACKS A PUNCH

Boxer Laishram stuns Beijing Olympics silver medallist to advance to the quarterfinals

London, Aug. 4: Indian boxer Laishram Devendro Singh stunned 2008 Beijing Games silver medallist Serdamba Purevdorj of Mongolia to storm into the quarterfinals of the men’s light-fly weight (49kg) category at the London Olympics, here on Saturday.

The pocket-sized dynamo from Manipur outclassed his superior Mongolian rival 16-11 in the pre-quarterfinals at the ExCel arena and put himself one win away from a bronze medal.

Devendro started from where he left in his opening bout and kept Purevdorj under pressure by adopting aggressive attitude from the word go.

Devendro was quick with his footwork and also displayed fast hands, which his fourth seeded Mongolian found hard to handle as he was brought down to the canvas twice in the bout by the Indian.

With some quick left and right punches, Devendro seized the early initiative by taking a 4-3 lead in the opening round.

Devendro continued the onslaught in the second round and managed to bring his opponent down to the canvas with a combination of powerful left and right punches.

A stunned Purevdorj, the 2009 World Champion, seemed to have ran out of steam as Devendro pocketed the second round 4-2 to widen the lead over his opponent. VIKAS’ ‘WIN’ OVERTURNED,

PROTEST REJECTED India’s bid to overturn the controversial ouster of 69kg boxing medal hope Vikas Krishan from the Olympics came to a nought when the world governing body for the game rejected their appeal here.

Stung by Vikas’ ejection from the Games after his victory in the pre-quarterfinal bout against Errol Spence of United States was overturned after a review — courtesy a protest by the American team — the Indian boxing officials filed their own protest with AIBA. But the world body rejected India’s protest.

“The appeal has been rejected and we cannot do anything now,” a source in the Indian contingent said.

The appeal was filed after an emergency meeting of the team with Chef-de-Mission and Indian Boxing Federation secretary General P.K. Muralidharan Raja.

In a stunning turn of events, Vikas was ousted from the Games here after AIBA over- turned the result of the bout he had won, following a review.

“There were a total of nine (9) holding fouls committed by the Indian boxer in the third round alone. However the Referee only gave one caution,” the AIBA said in a statement after a review by its Competition Jury.

“In the second round, at the time 02:38, the boxer from India spitted out his gumshield intentionally. However the Referee didn’t give any warning,” it added.

Based on these “findings”, the jury members “unanimously” decided to award Spence four points. Poonia began with a foul throw but regained her composure to hurl the one-kg discus to 63.54m to finish fifth in Group A and eighth overall.

Her teammate Seema Antil, however, narrowly failed to join her in the 12-woman finals. Antil had a best effort of 61.91m, which she came up in her third and final throw, to finish 13th and missed the final round.

Steeplechase runner Sudha, also a gold medal winner like Vikas at the 2010 Guangzhou Asiad, failed to match the time that she had clocked to make the ‘B’ grade qualification standard for the Olympics, finishing 13th out of 15 runners in the first of three semi-final heats.

The rowing duo of Sandeep Kumar and Manjeet Singh ended up a poor second from last in the men’s double sculls race at the Eton Dorney Rowing centre.

Shooter Shagun Chowdhary’s campaign at the Games too, ended on a disappointing note as she failed to qualify for the finals of the women’s trap event after finishing 20th. Shagun finished a lowly 20th out of 22 competi- tors at the Royal Barracks Artillery in London on Saturday. PAES, SANIA OUSTED BY

MIRNYI, AZARENKA India’s tennis campaign at the London Olympic Games met with a disappointing end as Leander Paes and Sania Mirza were knocked out in the mixed doubles quarterfinals.

Paes and Sania lost 5-7, 6-7(5) to the top seeded pair of Max Mirnyi and Victoria Azarenka from Belarus in the last-eight stage match, which was spread over two days due to bad light.

— PTI