Boxing: India’s Vikas Krishan Yadav beats USA’s Charles Conwell, through to Rd of 16

Yadav will now face Onder Sipal of Turkey who won his very close, and equally entertaining round of 32 bout. This is Yadav’s second Olympic apperance and he wants to make most of it, and bury the ghost of London once and for all. In 2012, Yadav lost to another American Errol Spence, where the Indian boxer was initially adjudged the winner before Spence appealed against the judgment and the decision was over-turned on technical grounds.

WATCH VIDEO: Vikas Krishan Yadav Takes Ring At Rio 2016 Olympics, Family Roots For Him At Home

Vikas Krishan Yadav vs Charles Conwell: As it happened

# The referee raises the hand and Vikas Krishan is winner of the bout by a unanimous decision. India’s boxer touches the mat, before celebrating with the coach

# Much better round for Conwell but it seems it was too late by the USA boxer

# The second round too belongs to Vikas. Conwell now need something special in final round

# Another good round for Vikas, if he gets the judges nod he’ll be through to next round

# First round goes to Vikas Krishan Yadav with scores of 10, 10, 10 from three judges. Conwell managed three nines

# A close-fought first round comes to an end. Both return to their corner before coming back again in the second round

# Vikas off to a steady start as he continues to dodge punches thrown by Conwell. The atmosphere really good for the match

# Vikas had forgettable outing in London, so did USA’s boxing contingent. Both would want to make up for that today

Krishan in the red corner just like at London 2012. Hopefully no deja vu in the result.

— jonathan selvaraj (@jon_selvaraj) 9 August 2016

# He is soon followed by USA’s Conwell. The 18-year-old who is the youngest in Team USA but has been unbeaten in the Olympic qualifiers

# India’s Vikas Krishan Yadav walks out to the ring. Fans getting behind the pugilist

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# Bitter London lesson drives Vikas Krishan Yadav on path to Rio

Vikas Krishan Yadav has learned from the bitterest experience that he can leave nothing to chance in the Olympic ring and it is a lesson the Indian boxer will carry with him to the Rio Games. Four years ago, the then 20-year-old welterweight thought he had clinched a place in the quarter-finals of the London Olympic tournament after beating American Errol Spence 13-11. His joy turned quickly to outrage when amateur boxing’s governing body AIBA, after reviewing video footage, overturned the result and awarded the American four additional points for fouls committed by Yadav. India subsequently took the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which rejected the appeal. Yadav has since moved up to the 75kg category, but the feeling of being wronged in London has never left him. “London taught me a big lesson,” the softly-spoken boxer told Reuters in an interview, sporting a mosaic of bruises on the top half of his face and a couple of stitches over his right eye. “It taught me I can’t leave anything to chance. It taught me results of close contests can go either way even after you’ve been declared the winner.
“Since then, I have always tried to make my bouts one-sided and win it really big. That will be my effort in Rio as well.” Shattered by the London setback, Yadav largely shunned the ring for the next 18 months, undertaking training to become a policeman in the northern Indian state of Haryana instead.

WATCH: Family cheers for Vikas from Bhiwani

# Olympic Swansong: All grown up, Vikas Krishan looks to make it count at last shot in Rio

Back in 2012, when he made his Olympic debut in London, Vikas Krishan was a clean cut 20-year-old. It had been just two years since he entered the senior ranks. His baby face was topped by a schoolboyish mop. Four years have made a mark on Krishan’s features. His hair has a rakish shaved-on-the-sides long-on-the-top do. His face is cut and patched. Bruises have gathered colour below his left cheekbone and along the bridge of the nose. A loop of surgeon’s thread sticks out from under his right eyebrow even as it did its job of holding together split skin long enough to heal. Despite all the damage, he wears a smile. Just last week, Krishan has won the right to participate in his second Olympics after reaching the semifinal of the 2016 AIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament. It was the middleweight’s penultimate chance to qualify for Rio. He had already missed the opportunity to qualify at the 2015 World Championships and then the Asia-Oceania qualifiers in March. Now with 39 days to go before the start of the boxing competition in Rio, Krishan will be looking to make up for what he missed out in London.
Krishan had been one of Indian boxing’s big hopes at the 2012 Games. He had qualified in the welterweight division (69kg) after winning bronze at the 2011 World Championships — becoming only the second Indian then to do so. He had won an Asian Games gold medal before that. In London, though, he was upset in the first round in controversial circumstances. American Errol Spence had lost 11-13 at the end of the contest but was declared champion after it was determined he should have been awarded four points because of unpunished fouls committed by Krishan.