Four Indians book Olympic berths,Dinesh misses out

The quarterfinalists in each weight category from 49kg to 81 kg at the competition will qualify for the 2012 Games, alongwith two others in each category.

Four of the five Indians in action on Tuesday won their respective bouts to enter the quarterfinals of the World Boxing Championships and,with it,book an Olympic spot each.

Nineteen-year-old Devendro Singh 49kg,Commonwealth Games medallists Manoj Kumar 64kg and Jai Bhagwan 60kg and Asian Games gold medallist Vikas Krishan 69 kg booked their berths at the 2012 London Games. The quarterfinalists in each weight category from 49kg to 81 kg at the competition will qualify for the 2012 Games, alongwith two others in each category.

While Manoj,a gold medallist at the CWG,rallied to defeat Chinas Qing Hu 17-15,19-year-old Devendro continued his giant-killing spree by beating seventh seed Carlos Quipo of Ecuador 18-12 in another impressive performance. In the evening session,Jai Bhagwan,a CWG bronze-medal winner,upstaged seventh seed David Joyce of Ireland 32-30 in a tense battle while Vikas had the upper hand throughout in his battle with Sipal Onder of Turkey,winning 14-7.

But there was disappointment too for the Indian contingent as Asian Games silver-medallist and 12th seed Dinesh Kumar bowed out with a 7-16 loss to Australias Damien Hooper.

Manojs fightback was heartening as he was trailing 3-6 in the opening round but bounced back to level at 7-7 in the second round and narrow the overall gap to 10-11. He then went on the offensive in the final round,securing seven points against his rivals two to clinch victory. Manoj will now face fifth seed Thomas Stalker of England.

Impressive debut

Devendro once again displayed nerves of steel against his more fancied rival. The nimble-footed Manipuri teen,making his senior international debut in the competition,took a 5-2 lead in the opening round,capitalising on his opponents overtly defensive approach with some telling body blows.

Devendro,whose elder sister L Sushila Devi is a two-time national champion,began his training with the likes of five-time world champion Mary Kom before joining the Indian squad. I had fought him during our recent training trip to France. That gave me a good idea of his game and it helped me in this bout, Devendro said. He will next face Koreas Shin Jong Hoon.

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Jai Bhagwan was confident against a higher-ranked opponent and led 13-8 in the first round,but lost focus in the second as his rival roared back to notch up 10 points to make it 18-20.With both boxers warned by the referee,the round ended 12-12 but the Indian edged ahead by two points.

In the final bout featuring an Indian,Vikas was the more aggressive,dominating his Turkish opponent. With an attacking game that forced Onder to keep up his guard,Vikas led by 5-3 after the opening round. he scored five more points to his opponents two in the second before closing out the bout 14-7.