
Kuala Lumpur, Sept 15: India was today left with just one boxer, Jatinder Kumar, in competitions at the Commonwealth Games after Gurcharan Singh went down fighting Canadian Troy Amos Ross in the light heavyweight category.
Jatinder Kumar, who is contesting in the middleweight, a 75-kg class, moved into the quarter-finals late last night after 13-3 win on points against Francis Partiosh of Samoa.
Kumar is now up against Kenyan George Adipo tomorrow. Adipo outclassed Sean Pepperall of Wales 17-7.
Gurcharan Singh gave a good fight to the technically superior Canadian, who maintained the edge throughout the five rounds. The fight was a fast-paced one and Ross could only sneak in a punch in the first round for a point as the Indian showed a good defence.
In the second round, Gurcharan connected a left to narrow the score to 2-3. The Canadian quickly retaliated to get a point and go into the third round 4-2 up.
Ross had the advantage over Gurcharan because he was a little faster. Gurcharan also hadproblems getting his punches in as his opponent weaved about quickly.
Some sharp jabs with his left gave the Canadian a 6-3 lead in the fourth round but Gurcharan got through a couple of times and went into the last round 5-7 down.
The Indian slowed down a bit in the last round and Ross took full advantage of that to get some points and finally 10-7.
India had sent four boxers to the competitions, their best bet being Dingko Singh in bantamweight. But the Manipuri boxer, who had beaten Alfred Tetteh of Ghana in the first round, went down to Tebazalwa Abdu of Uganda on points in the pre-quarterfinals.
The fourth Indian boxer Gurmit Singh fell in the first round of 57-kg class to James Swan of Australia.