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Journalism of Courage
TAEJEON CITY Korea, JAN 19: Bangkok Asian Games champion Ng Dingko Singh dealt Indian aspirations a stunning blow by crashing out in the first round of the Seoul Cup International Boxing Tournament and second Olympic qualifying meet here on Tuesday. The 22-year-old bantamweight star put up an ordinary performance against unheralded Tsuji Moto of Japan to squander an early lead before losing a close 7-8 points decision.
Featherweight Ramanand, however, salvaged Indian pride on the opening day with a facile 12-4 points victory over Adnan Yusou of Malaysia to move into a quarter-final matchup against Haider Ali of Pakistan, who scored a close points verdict over Xiao Song of China.
Dingko came here as a major hope to make the grade after missing the Asian meet in Tashkent owing to a right wrist injury, but put up a pathetic performance.
The usually agile boxer could neither throw his sharp punches nor move out of his opponent8217;s blows and seemed to lack stamina. The Indian led by two points after thefirst two rounds, but Tsuji Moto reorganised himself and delivered effective combination punches to clinch the bout. It was apparent he had not trained well for this event.
None of the other six Indian boxers in the fray were in action on a miserably cold opening day, which saw heavy snowing and temperature dip to minus six degrees outside the indoor arena.
Lightfly Suresh Singh has been given a bye into the second round against a Kuwaiti rival. Flyweight H Srinivasa Rao will begin his campaign tomorrow. Lightweight pugilist Narender Rana will face an Iranian rival in the first round.
Commonwealth Games silver medallist Jitender Kumar and lightheavy Gurcharan Singh have both been drawn directly into the quarter-final round.PTI
