Indians dancing in the ring, disappointment everywhere else

Akhil Kumar and Jitender packed enough punch in the boxing ring to stroll into the pre-quarterfinals in their respective categories on Tuesday.

Akhil Kumar and Jitender packed enough punch in the boxing ring to stroll into the pre-quarterfinals in their respective categories on Tuesday.

In the 51kg category, Jitender Kumar pounded Ulas Memis until the 17-year-old pugilist from Turkey retired while trailing 21-1. Later in the evening, Akhil tamed Ali Hallab of France 12-5 in the 54 kg category to reach the second round.

Jitender now meets Tulashboy Doniyorov of Uzbekistan while Akhil takes on 2007 world champion Sergey Vodopyanov in the pre-quarters.

Akhil was in control right from the beginning and led 4-2 after the first round. A lop-sided second round saw him stretching the lead and the Indian did not even break sweat in the last two rounds.

8220;My next round match is going to be crucial and fighting against a world champion is never going to be easy. I8217;ll put my best foot forward,8221; Akhil said.

Khade, Sejwal create records

Virdhawal Khade and Sandeep Sejwal created twin national records even if that was not enough to see them through to the semi-finals of the 100m freestyle and 200m breaststroke events, respectively. Khade clocked 50.07 to better his previous mark of 50.49 in the freestyle to finish 42nd. Sejwal did better, knocking three seconds off his own previous mark of 2:18.23, clocking 2:15.24.

Archers crash out

Dola Banerjee, L Bombayla Devi and V Pranitha crashed out of the individual archery event. While Dola and Bombayla went down in their opening rounds, to Canadian Marie-Pier Beaudet and Poland8217;s Iwona Marcinkiewicz, repectively, Pranitha lost 99-106 to Kwon Un Sil of Korea in a pre-quarterfinal match .

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Dola and Beaudet were tied at 109 at the end, but the Canadian sneaked through with a 10 in the shoot-out as Dola shot 8. Bombayla lost 101-103.

Parnitha, who had beaten Waller Jane of Australia 106-100 in round one, dominated the first quarter scoring one point more. However, she soon lost track.

Rowers struggle

Devender Kumar Khandwal and Manjeet Singh finished a disappointing fifth in the Lightweight Men8217;s Double Sculls Repechage.

The Indians clocked 7:02.06s, 23 seconds behind the winners 8212; Pedro Fraga and Nuno Mendes of Portugal 8212; who crossed the finishing line in 6:39.07s. Devender and Manjeet will now compete for the 13-24 classification places.