Princely performances by Rao, Basnet

NEW DELHI, April 9: The Indian boxing coach GS Sandhu said today that two youngsters Srinivas Rao and Rajesh Basnet were very impressive''...

NEW DELHI, April 9: The Indian boxing coach GS Sandhu said today that two youngsters Srinivas Rao and Rajesh Basnet were 8220;very impressive8221; at the King8217;s Cup championships held in Bangkok Thailand recently. 8220;They can be medal prospects, if groomed well,8221; he said after the team returned last night.

However, the coach denied that Basnet had reached the finals, as reported by agencies earlier. The five-member squad won a bronze which went to Jitender Kumar in the middle weight 75kg category. Sandhu also praised the experienced JItender for his fighting qualities. While Rao and Basnet lost in the quarter-finals, the other two, Durjan Shastri and Bhushan Saini failed to clear the first hurdle. 8220;I am really disappointed with Bhushan8217;s performance. He is our best in the lightweight category, but was outclassed by the Thai boxer,8221; Sandhu said.

The Indian Amateur Boxing Federation IABF had sent a second string team for the event, with last year8217;s gold medal winner Dingko Singh, Birju Shah and otherexperienced boxers staying back to train. The coach defended this decision saying that the idea was to keep the medal prospects away from limelight. 8220;Our rivals have been preparing videos of our bouts and thereby, preparing strategies well in advance to counter our boxers. So, we decided not to expose our main boxers. It remains to be seen how effective that will be at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.8221;

The IABF secretary Rajesh Bhandari also expressed satisfaction with the team8217;s performance. 8220;These were youngsters, and their performance against some of the best in the world is indeed creditable. The boys now have the confidence that they can do much better,8221; he said.

The coach also said that the dominance of left-handers in Bangkok has underlined the need for India to find more southpaws as sparring partners.8220;We have been facing this problem for several years now. Unless our boys train against southpaws, they will keep failing in international events.8221;

Indians at King8217;s Cup

LIGHT-FLYWEIGHT: H Srinivas Rao 8212; Preliminary round: bt Jim Rooney Ireland 19-6 on points; Quarter-finals: lost to Somrat Kamsing Thailand 8-9 on points.

FLY WEIGHT: Rajesh Basnet 8212; Preliminary round: bt Luchi Wen Chinese Taipei 14-2 on points; Quarter-finals: lost to Pramuansak Phosuwan Thailand 1-9.

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LIGHT WEIGHT: Bhushan Saini 8212; Preliminary round: lost to Pichal Sayota Thailand 4-13 on points.

LIGHT-MIDDLE WEIGHT: Durjan Shastri 8212; Preliminary round: lost to Fukuda Takayuki Japan, lost by RSC OC in the fourth round.

MIDDLE WEIGHT: Jitender Kumar 8212; Preliminary round: bt Bancha Malison Thailand 7-4 on points; Quarter-finals: bt Astrakhantsev Alexei Russia 7-6 on points; Semi-finals: lost to Yarbekov Dilshod Uzbekistan 10-14 on points.